Villanova Univ. School of Law drew more than 1,800 people Friday for its "Moneyball"-themed panel featuring Padres Vice Chair & CEO Jeff Moorad and Senior VP/Baseball Operations Omar Minaya, A's VP & GM Billy Beane, MSNBC President Phil Griffin and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell. Unsurprisingly, the panel said the concept of "Moneyball" remains alive and well, though the concept is still often misunderstood. "'Moneyball' isn't simply about on-base percentage or some other particular statistic," Moorad said. "It's about having a real discipline, focus and commitment about a particular philosophy and how you go about your business." Beane, the focal point of Michael Lewis' '03 book and hit movie last year starring Brad Pitt, put the concept in even more stark terms, particularly as he operates each year with one of MLB's lowest payrolls. "It's about underpaying players, basically," Beane said. "It was always about getting higher performance than what we (were) paying for, and trying to multiply that by 25. That was the arbitrage." The session also included the formal announcement of a $5M gift from Moorad to establish the Jeffrey S. Moorad Center for the Study of Sports Law, which will be only one of only several such entities in existence in the U.S. "It's a transformational gift, and one that is going to help push us in several important directions," said Villanova Univ. School of Law Dean John Gotanda. "We'll be able to build out our sports law curriculum in a big way. Certainly, we'll be to expand our internship opportunities through this. And we want Villanova to be a real repository for research and archival materials in sports law." The gift is the largest in the law school's history.
