Pepperdine Caruso Law Team Competes at 14th Annual Tulane International Baseball Arbitration Competition

Pepperdine Caruso Law third-year student Aaron Mojarras and second-year student Jared Antman joined team captain, third-year student Colin Martell, to compete in the 14th Annual Tulane International Baseball Arbitration Competition (TIBAC) hosted by Tulane Law School. The Caruso Law team has previously traveled to New Orleans for the annual competition, but this year, each competitor argued virtually over Zoom.

Coached by Christopher Delorenz (JD '20), Jeremy Evans (LLM '18, MBA '20), and Pepperdine Sports Law Professor Maureen Weston, the team competed against 40 law schools from all over the country. Although the Caruso Law team failed to advance past a cut of eight teams, they presented the winning argument against semi-finalist New York University and bested last year's runner-up, Pace University.

TIBAC provides an arena for law students to improve their oral and written advocacy skills. Unlike other moot competitions, TIBAC accurately replicates Major League Baseball's salary arbitration proceedings, offering a unique experience for sports law students that directly translates into practice. This year, the competition exposed the students to online proceedings, which may become a new staple of the profession.

The Caruso Law team argued in front of Jay Reisinger (Partner, Reisinger Comber & Miller LLC), Trey Hendricks (Director of International Scouting, Cincinnati Reds), and Hamilton Wise (Assistant Director of International Scouting, Texas Rangers). The team's work began in November when Tulane released the three-salary-arbitration-eligible players: Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Walker Buehler; Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Aaron Nola; and Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman. The team used statistics of players who had comparable salaries and playing abilities to use as comparable players. The team then built slide decks and wrote and practiced their arguments. By January, team captain Martell was confident in the team's ability saying, "This group has the chance to win the whole competition on talent alone, we just can't let nerves take us off our game plan."

Next year, the Caruso Law team plans to hold a first-place trophy in person.

The team would like to thank the coaches, baseball professionals, competitors, administration, and Professor Weston, for all their efforts. Without them, the competition could not have been possible.