UGA baseball player’s attorney files motion taking aim at judge’s role as NCAA game official

• The attorney is questioning the judge’s impartiality because the judge is an NCAA football referee.
• The attorney argues that the judge’s role as an NCAA referee could create a bias in favor of the NCAA.
• The player’s attorney believes that the judge should have disclosed his NCAA affiliation and recused himself from the case.

The attorney for Georgia baseball player Dylan Goldstein filed a “motion for reconsideration” Friday after the judge in the case denied a preliminary injunction that would have allowed him to play.

At issue is Judge Tilman “Tripp” Self’s role as an NCAA football referee, something that attorney Louis Cohan wrote in the court filing he “learned only after Judge Self ruled in favor of Defendant,” which is the NCAA.

“Given Judge Self’s position as an NCAA referee, his impartiality might reasonably be questioned requiring him to recuse himself,” the filing stated. “Further, Judge Self’s referee position suggests that he may have a personal bias in favor of the NCAA…Accordingly, Plaintiff requests that the Court reconsider the Order Denying Plaintiff’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction based on this newly discovered evidence which shows a clear error of law and manifest injustice.”

Self wasn’t hiding his role as a college football official.

His profile on X, formerly Twitter, states: “Imperfect, but forgiven. Husband. Father. Brother. United States District Judge. NCAA Football Official. Turkey Hunter.”

He listed among his “other affiliations” on a questionnaire for judicial nominees by the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary that he was a member of the Southern Conference Football Officials Association from 2012-2016 and served as president in 2014-16. The Southern Conference in football is in the Football Championship Subdivision, formerly I-AA.

High-profile attorney Tom Mars, known as a leading college athlete advocate, posted on X that Self served as a replay official for the Tennessee Tech-Samford game last November and wrote: “The Code of Judicial Conduct requires judges to disclose to the parties any relationship they have which could cause reasonable minds to question their impartiality.”

Self wrote in his US Senate Committee on the Judiciary questionnaire:  “I plan to continue officiating college football. However, if it is determined that continuing officiating would violate the United States Judges’ Code of Conduct, I would resign from the football officiating staff of the Southern Conference.”

The brief filed late Friday cites an article for Trellis Law that states, “When not presiding on the bench, Self is a longtime officiator of NCAA football in the Southern Conference.”

Goldstein, a starting outfielder on last year’s Bulldog NCAA Super Regional team, is seeking to gain eligibility for this current season after playing at a junior college — Chipola College in Florida — before spending two seasons at Florida Atlantic and last year as a starting outfielder for a Georgia team that reached the NCAA Super Regionals.

He’s among college baseball players seeking to gain another year of eligibility after Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia was granted a preliminary injunction that allows him to play in the 2025-2026 school year. The NCAA granted a blanket waiver that covers the next academic year, but not spring sports in 2025.

Self is a 1997 University of Georgia law school grad who mentioned from the bench during a hearing for a temporary restraining order that he attended the NCAA Super Regional series when Georgia played N.C. State last June.

The Southern Conference has not returned a message left Saturday morning from the Athens Banner-Herald seeking details on Self’s current role with Southern Conference officiating.

“Plaintiff’s exercise of due diligence to discover facts in this case does not extend to researching the judge and his affiliations,” Cohan wrote in the motion. “Rather, that due diligence to discover facts relates to facts going to the merits of the case. In contrast, every Judge is ethically bound to assess and evaluate possible disqualification or recusal and to avoid even the appearance of impropriety in all activities.”