So what? It was a favorite phrase of one of my law school professors, who used it as a Socratic approach to make us think about the consequences of the legal claims we were asserting. Over time, it has developed into a personal legal reasoning mantra of sorts.

Currently, it is the question waiting on the other side of the April 7 hearing on the proposed House settlement. College sports is looking at a new day with a whole new set of rules that will allow for significant benefits to college athletes: NIL deals from schools, collectives, and boosters and businesses; revenue-sharing; and scholarships.

So, what happens when someone flouts these new rules? It’s a question the power conferences have started contending with, and it looks like we need to be prepared -- again -- for a new version of a college sports enforcement model that will face the same challenges as its predecessors in being effective.

My entire legal career has been spent in investigations: in government waste, crime and ethical misconduct with an inspector general’s office; NCAA violations as an investigator with the enforcement staff; and now as a partner in a college sports and higher education practice group that represents schools, coaches and athletes in NCAA processes, and investigates and adjudicates Title IX sexual harassment complaints. Every investigative process presents challenges. The issue for college sports, though, is that it keeps repeating the same mistakes. So I thought I would offer a few thoughts based on lessons learned across two decades of........

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