College sports reform could advance in Congress controlled by the Republican Party

The NCAA’s years-long efforts to get lawmakers to address myriad issues in college sports could finally bear fruit in the new Republican-controlled Congress.

Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican who will take over as chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee, recently said a college sports bill will be a top priority, accusing Democrats of delaying needed reforms. He still needs Democratic support for any bill that passes the necessary 60-vote threshold in the Senate, and that means some compromise with lawmakers who are more concerned about the well-being of athletes than giving the NCAA more authority.

“Clearly the situation is much more feasible with the Republicans in control,” said Tom McMillen, a former Democratic congressman who played college basketball and for several years led a Division I athletic directors association. “From the standpoint of the “NCAA, this is an ideal scenario for them.”

What is at stake?

Cruz and others want to preserve at least parts of an amateur athlete model at the heart of college sports that has provided billions of dollars in scholarships and fueled decades of U.S. success in the Olympics.

The outlines of a bill have been debated for years, and those conversations have been influenced by millions of dollars in lobbying by the NCAA and the wealthiest sports conferences. The NCAA has found a more receptive audience on Capitol Hill since Charlie Baker, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts, took office in March 2023.

There is some bipartisan consensus that Congress should grant the NCAA a limited antitrust exemption that would allow it to set rules governing college sports without the constant threat of lawsuits, and that national standards are needed for the compensation of names, images and likenesses of athletes to cancel a mosaic. of state laws.

Those are the key elements of the legislation Cruz has supported for more than a year. His office staff and those of fellow Republican Jerry Moran of Kansas and Democrats Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Cory Booker of New Jersey spent months negotiating a bill that would have been introduced in the current divided Congress, but those talks fell apart. they stagnated.

Key to bipartisan support

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the outgoing chairwoman of the Commerce Committee, has been working to advance college sports reform since 2019 but struggled to build consensus on the legislation. Still, he agrees with Cruz on at least one problem Congress could solve: one he saw unfold in his home state with the dissolution of the Pac-12 Conference.

“Right now, big schools and their boosters are taking on smaller schools. We need a predictable national NIL standard that ensures a level playing field for college athletes and schools,” Cantwell said in a statement to The Associated Press.

A Supreme Court decision in 2021 paved the way for athletes to receive NIL compensation, and now a pending $2.8 billion settlement of multiple antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA has laid the groundwork not only for damages paid to previous athletes. for the NIL money they couldn’t. Schools don’t earn but share the revenue with their current and future college stars.

Beyond the changes the courts forced the NCAA to make, the organization has expanded health benefits for athletes and created new scholarship guarantees. Those new rules went into effect Aug. 1, and the NCAA maintains they obviate the need for Congress to mandate such benefits.

“We believe that in the next session, members of Congress will see the results of those positive changes, and our goal is to build on them and address the remaining issues that only Congress can address,” said Tim Buckley, a senior NCAA official. vice president of foreign affairs.

Thorny labor issue

The NCAA’s primary goal (and one that appears achievable with Republicans in charge) is to “prevent student-athletes from being forced to become employees of their schools,” Buckley said.

There are several pending efforts by athletes seeking the possibility of unionizing, and at least one is already tied up on the court.

The NCAA has sent athletes to Capitol Hill to tell Congress they don’t want employee status, and some Democrats who previously supported employing athletes have acknowledged the potential drawbacks. They include drastic cuts to women’s and Olympic sports that could be necessary for universities to meet their salary obligations and financial complications for athletes whose scholarships and other benefits would be subject to taxes.

“For example, historically black colleges and universities came together and said, ‘If you force us to treat student-athletes as employees, that will cause us to cancel most of our sports programs.’ It would be a disastrous outcome,” Cruz said in an appearance at Texas A&M University in September.

Still, overly broad anti-employment language in any bill could jeopardize its chances of passage. Democrats are hesitant to pass legislation seen as too friendly to the NCAA. Booker, a moderate on the issue of athlete employment and a former football player at Stanford, however emphasized in a statement that he would only support a pro-athlete bill.

“For too long, the college sports system put power and profits ahead of the rights and well-being of college athletes. And while we have made some hard-fought progress in recent years, there is still more to do,” Booker said. “My advocacy on your behalf will continue in the next Congress.”

Cruz could also face pressure from his own side of the aisle. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, who spent more than two decades as a Division I football coach, has called for Congress to impose sanctions on players who breach NIL contracts.

While Cruz understands the need to compromise, he intends to use the power he has to advance his (and, to some extent, the NCAA’s) priorities.

“As president I can call hearings. I am in charge of every hearing that the Commerce Committee has,” Cruz said in a recent episode of his weekly podcast. “I can decide which bills get flagged and which don’t, and that gives you the ability to push an agenda that’s just qualitatively different.”