Minnesota Law’s Inaugural Sports Law Competition Team Wins National Championship
Carter Allen ’24 and Jack Tate ’24, along with the team of Spencer Rojas ’24 and Ryan Clemmons ’25, made up the Law School’s first-ever sports law moot court competition team. The two teams competed at Tulane University’s Mardi Gras Moot Court Invitational in early February. Both teams advanced to the quarterfinals, and the Tate/Allen team won the national championship.
The teams were chosen from a large pool of applicants that was reviewed by Randall Ryder ’09, director of the school’s moot courts program. The students came to Ryder with a proposal to compete in the Tulane event.
“Carter and Jack made a compelling pitch about the competition, why the school should do it, and ideas for local sports law experts who would be ideal coaches ” says Ryder.
The idea grew from Allen’s participation in the Law School’s Sports and Name, Image & Likeness Clinic (Sports NIL) which covers topics related to name/image/likeness (NIL) laws that are playing an increasingly large role in college sports.
“Carter and I are sports fans, but I think what both of us brought to the team was strong oral advocacy skills,” says Tate. “It wouldn’t matter as much what the subject was. We were confident that we could talk our way through it.”
Congratulations to all!
From L to R: Ryan Clemmons '25; Spencer Rojas '25; coach Tarun Sharma '22; Carter Allen '25; coach Christopher Pham; Jack Tate '24; coach Aalok Sharma '13; and Professor Randall Ryder '09, director of Minnesota Law's Moot Court Program.
Randall Ryder ’09
