§ 131.008.Attorney's Fees and Costs

A one-way fee provision closing the chapter.

A regional association or institution that prevails in an action under this chapter is entitled to an award of reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.

"Is entitled to" makes the award mandatory on success, not discretionary.

The provision runs one way. Only the association or institution — the plaintiffs the chapter creates — can recover fees. A defendant who defeats the claim recovers nothing under this section.

That asymmetry is a deliberate choice, and it contrasts sharply with the Theft Liability Act, where the award runs to whoever prevails, and with the trade secrets chapter, where fees require bad faith.

Here the Legislature put the fee risk entirely on the defendant.

The rationale is presumably the enforcement gap the chapter was written to close. Boosters and agents operate outside the institutions they damage, and without a fee award a school might not pursue a claim against an individual of limited means even where the program’s loss was large.

The practical effect is to make the chapter usable against defendants who could not satisfy a large judgment, since the cost of pursuing them is recoverable.

Whether the chapter is used at all is another matter. Its 1987 rulebook, its insider defences, and the transformation of collegiate athletics regulation since have left it with a narrow field of operation.