Associated Press2 minute read
At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, NCAA President Charlie Baker shifted the focus of the need for federal law in college sports away from regulating how athletes are compensated for their reputations and moving away from regulating how athletes are compensated for their fame. The focus shifted to the possibility of being considered a school employee.
Baker, Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick and others appeared before the House Judiciary Committee, the 10th hearing on college sports held at the Capitol since 2020. He was among the witnesses who appeared before the court.
In his opening statement, Baker said college sports are “past a period of change.”
“But I’m proud to say we’re doing something about it,” he said.
Baker, a former Massachusetts governor, touted the NCAA’s recent reforms, including expanded long-term health insurance for athletes, up to 10 years of degree funding, and scholarship protections.
He also told the committee that the NCAA is moving forward with its own regulations regarding athletes’ name, image and likeness compensation agreements.
Baker, his predecessor, Mark Emmert, and other college sports leaders have been working together to enact federal legislation regulating NIL compensation, even before the NCAA lifted its ban on NIL payments to athletes in 2021. We have been lobbying Congress for this.
Several bills have been introduced or published, including bipartisan efforts in recent months, but none have gained traction.
Meanwhile, as is often the case in professional sports, billions of dollars in media rights revenue go to schools and conferences participating in the NCAA’s highest level of competition, such as football and basketball, whose sports are the driving force behind the contracts. Legal threats have emerged that could force them to share with the players.
The NCAA is comprised of more than 1,100 schools and serves hundreds of thousands of athletes.
“To enable enhanced benefits while protecting programs from uniform litigation in the courts, we are amending current regulatory guidance by giving student-athletes special status that allows them to be non-employees. “I support codifying this into law,” Baker said.
Baker said athlete representatives from all three NCAA divisions have indicated they do not want to become employees of the school.
Petiti, who took over as Big Ten commissioner earlier this year after a long career as a television and Major League Baseball executive, said his schools are open to providing even more benefits directly to athletes. .
The Big Ten signed a media rights deal last year that will pay the conference more than $7 billion over the next seven years.
Swarbrick said in written testimony that Congress could consider a “more radical approach” and codify a system that would allow athletes to negotiate with conferences on the terms of their participation.