Produced by: Denise Kamyuka
October 16, 2018
Professor Robert J. Romano is an assistant professor in the Division of Sport Management. While he has an impressive resume in academia: having held both the Director of Sport Management and Chair positions within Fontbonne University’s College of Business, while also lecturing at such prestigious universities as Instituto Empresa, Columbia University, Drexel University School of Law, he also actively serves as a Judicial-Arbitrator and attorney. Professor Romano earned his Juris Doctorate from Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana and Masters in Sports Management from Columbia University, New York City, New York, before completing his LLM in International & Comparative Sports Law from Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economia (ISDE), Madrid, Spain.
Professor Romano’s legal background focuses on sports and entertainment law, having built experience in legal issues surrounding NCAA students-athletes, sport arbitration and the representation of world-class athletes. With such a comprehensive background, it comes as no surprise that the Connecticut based attorney, would be invited to weigh in on the discussion of fired UConn men’s basketball coach, Kevin Ollie. Stan Simpson of Fox 61 has taken particular interest in this case and sort to empower his viewers with palatable information, to fully understand the complexities of the case. For this reason, he invited Professor Romano to his show a few weeks ago.
Kevin Ollie’s relationship with UConn ended last spring, with an estimated $10 million still remaining under the terms of his contract. UConn, however, argues that Ollie violated the contract by violating NCAA rules and therefore terminated him for cause, which means that does Ollie forfeited any monies due per their contact. Stan Simpson has brought in Professor Romano is help explain and give the public a laymen’s understanding of the legitimacy of both UConn and Kevin Ollie’s claim. Watch the video to help you get better informed and perhaps make your own verdict on who is more justified; what do you think the final verdict will be?