A group of U.S. senators on Thursday morning released a list of items they see as important rights belonging to college athletes, which they hope to soon protect or enforce with federal laws.
The College Athletes’ Bill of Rights aims to give athletes a greater voice in the regulatory process, stronger health and safety standards, expanded access to educational opportunities and more ways to make money – including revenue sharing agreements equal to those in professional sports. These items are designed to provide a framework for ongoing discussions on legislation, as Congress becomes more and more involved in enacting new rules on college sports in the coming year, according to Sens. Cory Booker (DN.J.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Who are leading the effort to make the bill.
“It’s been a long time since the NCAA had to act on these issues,” Booker told ESPN. “I am looking for legislation to oblige universities to have rules that protect athletes.”
NCAA President Mark Emmert and other college sports stakeholders asked Congress earlier this year to help them by enacting a law that would set a national standard for how athletes can earn money from third-party bids, often cited as name, image and image (NIL) deals. Several states have recently passed NIL laws; Emmert and others believe that the differences in those state laws will create a unique playing field in college sports. The NCAA has called for a uniform federal law that places some restrictions on NIL opportunities for athletes.
To preach these state laws, Congress will have to act until July 2021. In a series of hearings this year, several members of Congress have made it clear that they want the NCAA to dramatically increase the benefits that fellow athletes receive as federal legislators. will intervene. Thursday’s rights laws provide the most concrete list of hitherto increased benefits.
Their proposal would look for ways to:
• Allow athletes to mark their NIL rights in individual deals and group licensing with minimal restrictions;
• Establish revenue sharing agreements with associations, conferences and schools that result in “fair and equitable compensation”;
• Develop “evidence-based health, safety and wellness standards” that come with fines for non-compliance;
• Provide athletes with “commensurate lifetime scholarships” and comprehensive health care coverage for sports-related injuries;
• Increase transparency by mandating schools to provide more detailed reports of their athletic income and expenditure;
• Combine any restrictions or penalties associated with transferring from one school to another;
• Establish a committee, consisting of current and former college athletes along with other experts, to give a meaningful voice to athletes in the decision-making process for college sports.
Along with Booker and Blumenthal, at least nine other senators, including Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Chris Murphy, signed up to support the bill. Murphy has been one of the NCAA’s more vocal critics in recent years.
Both Blumenthal and Booker said that recent moves by players to demand similar rights have had a significant impact on the amount of interest they have been able to generate among their peers in Congress.
“Athletes deserve a lot of credit for coming forward and advocating for themselves in a thoughtful and touching way,” Blumenthal told ESPN. “The players’ activism has greatly increased the interest and momentum on Capitol Hill. The athletes have stature.”
Last week, before the Pac-12 postponed its fall season, a group of conference footballers announced their intention to sit out practices and games if the league did not address a list of their concerns. The list of players and the rights published on Thursday include many of the same items. Big Ten Conference players followed suit before their season was postponed with a similar announcement aimed at health care. Earlier this week, a group of players from all five major conferences announced that they want to set up a players’ association that would allow them to negotiate for more rights in the future.
Booker, who plays football at Stanford, said he admires the courage of the players who have spoken to them because they run the risk of losing on their teams. Booker and Blumenthal both said they support the idea of players forming a kind of organization that can help advocate for them. The proposal on Thursday was supported by the United Steelworkers union, as well as several groups advocating for the rights of athletes.
The Pac-12 players who made demands last week demanded a share of 50% revenue – a number equal to the agreements players have in pro leagues. They said that is one way to correct race injustice in a system where many athletes in income-generating sports are people of color.
“These are athletes who help generate unusual amounts of money,” Booker told ESPN. “And staff – coaches and beyond – get significant salaries out of their work. It’s, for me, exploitative to have people who create wealth, but they do not see income from that anything. And you have a disproportionate number of workers. who are black and brown people. “
Booker said he believes the senators are sending a “clear message” that if the NCAA wants a federal NIL law passed in the coming year, the organization will also have to include provisions for these other items. Booker, Blumenthal and Murphy all said that the coronavirus pandemic and the pressure on racial justice this summer have made it impossible to ignore the inequalities and problems with civil rights in college sports.
“This is not radical thinking,” Murphy said in a statement. “It’s just the right thing to do.”
Other politicians have expressed concern that Congress may step too far outside its comfort zone if it seeks to introduce comprehensive reforms in collective athletics. Congressman Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) told ESPN earlier this week that he does not think federal lawmakers should be involved in governing college sports rather than providing a guideline for NIL deals. Gonzalez, a former colleague and NFL player, has been working over the past few months to draft a version of NIL legislation.
“I think Congress can handle the NIL issue, [but] if we open it up to any problem that exists in college sports, I do not think we will do it better, “he said. I think we’ll probably make it less. “
Booker and Blumenthal both said they remain confident that they can generate bipartisan support, despite all the senators signing up for the Democratic Party’s first arrival.
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