On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on bipartisan bill aimed at saving something that isn’t in any real danger of failing.
The Save College Sports Act (which curiously has had its name adjusted to the “Protect College Sports Act”) would give the NCAA and its members a partial fix to the problems created by years of antitrust violations arising from the various universities coming together to create a governing body to pass a series of rules that kept players from sharing in the revenues they generate.
On the eve of the hearing, the two most powerful conferences issued a joint statement opposing the legislation.
“The Big Ten Conference and the Southeastern Conference support a sustainable national framework for college sports — one with an effective transfer portal, clear eligibility standards, and protections and benefits for student-athletes,” the Big Ten and SEC said. “While we appreciate the leadership of Senators Cruz and Cantwell in pursuing these shared goals, we do not support the Protect College Sports Act as drafted.
“The bill leaves critical issues unresolved. It does not meaningfully preempt the patchwork of state laws or provide the protections needed to make and enforce consistent rules, both essential to long-term stability in college athletics. It also shifts ongoing rulemaking to Congress, limiting the ability to adapt quickly as the landscape evolves. Rather than reducing litigation, the bill likely expands it without offering clear alternatives for dispute resolution. Finally, the bill alters the House settlement revenue sharing framework in a way that may result in fewer student-athletes receiving direct revenue share payments.
“We are committed to working with Senators Cruz and Cantwell and other members of Congress to improve this legislation so that it can provide lasting stability for college athletics.”
The incessant complaints about “litigation” ignore the reason for so many lawsuits in recent years. The entire system is a walking, talking, quacking violation of existing federal law. In lieu of finding a way to comply with legal standards that has been in place for more than a century, the folks who previously used the NCAA as a tool for denying compensation to players now want Congress to wave a magic wand that will turn the clock back, at least partially, to the days when athletes couldn’t participate in the free-market principles on which the nation was founded.
The Senate Commerce Committee nevertheless responded to the Big Ten and SEC with the same-old whining about the courts having the audacity to enforce the laws as written.
“The SEC and Big Ten agree the current system is broken and that college sports needs a national framework,” the Committee said. “That’s significant. We look forward to receiving constructive feedback from both conferences, but it’s vital that Congress fixes the court-induced chaos now rather than allow litigation, NIL bidding wars, and Power 2 consolidation to further destabilize college sports. Inaction will mean the shuttering of storied football and basketball programs across the country and the cancellation of many more Olympic sports, which will rob opportunity from thousands of student athletes.”
Bullshit.
All American businesses — including institutions of higher learning (whose tuitions and fees keep getting higher and higher) — have an obligation to balance the books. To make good business decisions. All American businesses thrive, survive, or fail based on the business moves they make.
It’s far easier to realize excess revenue when the people responsible for generating billions aren’t getting their fair share. That’s how it was for decades. That’s not how it should be.
The best solution, as noted by the upcoming Senate Commerce Committee testimony of Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould, is to drop the facade and call student-athletes what they are: Employees. She calls for “honest conversations” (a rarity in American politics, I know) about collective bargaining.
The antitrust exemption that the NCAA and its members want Congress to give them could easily be secured with a multi-employer bargaining unit that makes the athletes unionized employees. But the powers-that-be don’t want to do anything that will diminish their power over the players.
They want to have it both ways. They want to limit player income without making concessions to the players. They want a dispensation for antitrust violations, under the guise of assuming that those who can’t figure out a way to operate in a climate that complies with the law deserve a governmental bailout in the form of a change to rules that should apply to all businesses.
Bipartisan or not, it’s wrong. And the players have no real voice in it.
Hopefully, more administrators will call for honest conversations about the situation. To date, most of the politicians and university fat-cats have been disingenuous and dishonest about the supposed disaster the courts have created.
The schools have created the chaos through their longstanding efforts to get the benefit of player labor without the players getting properly compensated. The schools should be required to find a solution without being able to run to Uncle Sam and ask for a gift that will ultimately be bought and paid for by the folks who are most responsible for the creation of the massive revenue stream.