THE BUSINESS OF LEGAL & COMPLIANCE
From both Chief Legal Officer Ray and Chief Compliance Officer Laila at Northwestern Mutual recently, to the global race to connectivity in the days of you’ve got mail at AOL, I’ve worked in everything. Ask me!
I’ve negotiated at the highest corporate levels. Once, with a $50M delegation from IBM and make it in German. This area is my jam, I’d say. You should try me!
Now, back in Tempe, almost 30 years later, think of me more like a “role player”.
I’m coming in hot: an international player, now redshirt senior collegiate basketball strategist.
Also, very green and already been called naive. That’s what they always say.
Coach, this is what I’ve been up to the last 100 days!
SCOUTING DEALS
I make it my business to make a big deal. That’s just how I roll. It’s how I lead.
The only difference this time: I’m building my own team from scratch, leading this entity-making, writing my own paper, all the pitching! Just like I trained. Just different politics and executives. Corporate cut-throat comfort-level equivalent, really. Except this time, I know exactly where I am taking them.
Listen, I totally hear ya, I’m not picking an easy stake to claim. And I’m in the wild, wild west now. The Big 12 nonetheless!
This turn up is real life right now, not a story. The future of sports in America is at risk.
But I know you noticed too, women’s basketball coach Molly Miller - she’s got all the momentum at ASU.
Also I just watched Atlanta tie it up for the championship at 12:30PM. They ball, we cheer. That’s the real deal to keep your eye on here.
And consider this about the environment, as another ray of hope if you will: the NCAA offers clear guidance, audit, reporting and accountability for every stakeholder in the system. Consistently, and the same everywhere. Everybody stands on this process and understands how it operates. Every athlete, coach and administrator knows how to behave about it.
Compliance is the name of the game.
Don’t get it twisted! In contrast to the nebulous schemes of our actual legislature, current or in-process, being in compliance with the NCAA is easy. The way I talk about it in the field, the NCAA is like America’s best HOA. None of them are gonna let anyone get away with anything.
THE MARKET
OK, this is where it gets exciting. Let’s just start with ASU for now, obvi. Athletics is a $100M business. With ~600+ revenue-generating athletes.
Now, slow down with me here because my math is also from the streets of real-world consulting. As in people using their talents, training, experience, smarts and wits to solve complex problems in business. Ingenuity you might call it.
Me, I always go for “Revenue per X” as a key metric. Some execs call it ARR, but let’s not make it too complicated. Focus on this: everybody cares about money. I bet you everything the AD gets a forecast on it regularly - that’s cadence for consulting speak. His vision: higher, better, faster. Naturelmente.
So can we agree on $150K per athlete then, for now, as an easy average? Just to start from, ideate and harvest. Check my math tho Bro, go ahead, maybe teach me a trick I don’t know about from inside your spreadsheet economics?
Don’t I know it, for sure it’s give or take, that’s the beauty of it! I mean one of these ballers I saw last night generates wayyyyy more. The evidence is right there! Just the J ice around her neck, worth more than her share of buckets. But for all intents and purposes, her contributions are gonna be included as part of that topline number, believe it. Compliance is the name of this game.
And we fans, count on my fork, we’ll be cheering for her too! 2️⃣
TEAM INT
For international student ATHLETES, who at ASU make up approximately 24% of the athletic body, I’m holding a $20M revenue contribution in my head for market value purposes in my business. Still tracking?
Now, this is where it gets complicated. If there is one thing I know for sure about international students is that they all live in some kind of fear. Especially in AZ. At ASU, it’s 15K-ish of them who have been given permission to stay in the US for longer than a vacation, to study here, presumably all under an F-1 student visa. These students constantly gage their life choices against the risk of losing their right to be here. Essentially living the all-inclusive experience of what they CANNOT do like everyone else while they are here. That’s just how it works - it comes with the package. Compliance is the name of the game.
PLOT TWIST
The international student ATHLETES’ experience is no different. However, in their case, NCAA rules also require them, to have to worn their country’s flag on their jerseys to be eligible to study here. To be in compliance.
So, it’s 144 international student athletes in this ASU use case making the decision to leave that life, that journey they’ve been on, everything they’ve built in their life so far, all that momentum to get to the highest levels of elite performance, at home. 41 different countries. To come study and perform here, in Tempe. Chapeau.
With no one formally helping them envision any kind of meaningful business possibility or opportunity for their future in their area of expertise, in this international business landscape. Full stop. This makes zero sense to me. I’m putting my fork in the mix because this is clearly where I fit!
Side note: this is a gap everywhere. Approximately ~25K international student athletes compete in the NCAA just to give you a sense. Global economic value, completely untapped. From the best athletes in the world. Olympians even!
Boldly put, to me, these humans are national treasures. In their respective old country and here in Tempe.
And the way I see it as a strategist: they are essential to the economic viability of sportsmanship and fanaticism here in Tempe.
We’ll get there, but I get a sense everyone’s with me now.
If forks could speak.
THE FUTURE
And the way I see it, the NCAA is a real safe place for me to get after it. I came back for community, but I see now we can make a really nice global business out of it! Turns out my team, career and court, the same genre of visionaries!
And now also all lawyered up, just like you asked me. 👊🏼
NEXT: MONDAY, WBB. 5PM, DFA.
Forza Marti-fosi! 🇮🇹7️⃣🏀
The world is your oyster and I’m holding it down in section E. TEMPE.
Forks up! ☀️😈🔱
HOME - DFA.
If you are an international student athlete, I’d love to meet you for coffee. WhatsApp me.
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Sources: Everything I used in my research is from the AD’s 2025-2026 recap. I also consulted with the AZ Board of Regent’s site. 