In 2011, the Oakland Athletics, desperate to move out of Oakland and increase team revenue, acquired permission to buy property from the city of San Jose. But before the Athletics could officially move to the neighboring city, they first had to take care of a legal dispute with Major League Baseball, one that had barred their relocation for over a decade.

Heading into the 2019 NFL Playoffs, the Los Angeles Chargers were the #5 seed, prepared to travel on the road to Baltimore and earn their way to a second road game in New England. Yet, despite being the away team in the postseason matchup, the Chargers held the superior regular season record by two games. They finished the season an AFC best 12-4, but lost their division on a tiebreaker to the 12-4 Kansas City Chiefs, who earned the #1 seed and a first round bye. So why were the Chargers given the #5 seed? How is it fair for one team with the best record to get a bye while another doesn't even get a home game in the playoffs?

David Gottlieb returns to the show for this week's bonus episode to discuss the most exciting college basketball game of the 2018/19 season, and its implications for the NCAA Tournament it took place in. In the end, the Duke Blue Devils, led by Zion Williamson's 32 points, escaped an early round exit by just centimeters on an attempted UCF tip in that rimmed out in Duke's favor. Duke won the game 77-76, but what do its struggles against a #9 seed in the tournament mean for its four game path to the National Championship?

Just hours after the football world was rocked by perhaps the worst no call in NFL history, the AFC Championship Game would produce some controversy of its own. With league MVP Patrick Mahomes going step for step with Tom Brady and sending the second game of the day to overtime, football fans were left on edge. But the result of that overtime left fans uneasy. Soon after the AFC Championship game, new questions began lingering. Is overtime in the NFL fair as it stands? Should the NFL revisit its overtime rules again?

In the first bonus episode of The Rule, I sit down with David Gottlieb, the co-researcher for The Rule, to discuss the problem with referees in today's NFL (even beyond the NFC Championship), and solutions to the issue of correcting the mistakes of referees in-game.

In the 2019 NFC Championship Game, a result-changing penalty was missed by referees late in the fourth quarter, and without the ability to review the play, the referees could not correct the error. The Los Angeles Rams, who got away with the penalty that would have cost them the game, went on to win and move on to Super Bowl LIII. Immediately following the victory, anger among football fans arose, and players, coaches, and fans of the losing New Orleans Saints went so far as to call on the commissioner of the NFL to reverse the game's outcome because of the no call. The situation brought up a more important conversation than just the result of that game. Should penalties, especially controversial ones that have impacts on game results, be reviewable? And who should get the authority to initiate such reviews? How would those reviews affect the flow of the game? Would they make the league better or worse?

The Rule is back from its long pause! Season 2 remains on hold for now, but that does not mean no content. Season 3 will return to an anthology format, discussing a new topic each episode. With a controversial finish to the 2018/19 NFL season, and an NBA season that is starting to heat up, we are focusing in on the controversy surrounding basketball and football. Some topics will be more obvious, and some will be more surprising. The Rule Season 3 will air starting Monday, March 4th, with new episodes weekly.

On this week's episode, we dive into a bribery scheme carried out by a suit maker, a financial advisor going undercover for the FBI, and an assistant coach at Auburn University. All phone conversations in this episode are fictional reenactments of real phone calls recorded by the FBI.

September 26, 2017. The day of the blow up. The day the Federal Bureau of Investigation chose to unveil the largest sports corruption scandal in recent history. Dozens of coaches from top college basketball programs nationwide linked to bribery and fraud. The spirit of college basketball was tainted in 24 hours, and because of that, amateurism in all of college sports once again comes into question.

The Rule is back! One topic for one whole season this time. Stay tuned for the story of the largest scandal in amateur sports in recent history.