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College sports giants struggle to get rescued by Congress

College sports giants struggle to get rescued by Congress

POLITICO

Juan Perez Jr. and Nick Niedzwiadek
January 26, 2024
Colleges and universities are begging Congress to shield them from efforts to turn student-athletes into school employees who can demand salaries, union protections and other benefits.
But the bid is hitting a wall on Capitol Hill as lawmakers focus on other priorities, leaving universities’ control over a multibillion-dollar athletics industry at the mercy of the labor-friendly Biden administration and the courts.
The push to recognize athletes as workers is the latest effort exploiting a crack in the NCAA’s decadeslong governance over college sports that widened dramatically when states started letting athletes profit off endorsement deals, product pitches, or their social media following.
Schools, college athletics conferences and the NCAA say a massive swath of athletic programs could face financial collapse without congressional intervention.
“Sometimes the kettle has to boil before the government acts,” former Democratic Rep. Tom McMillen, who heads the LEAD1 Association trade group representing athletic directors competing in the top tier of college football, said in an interview. “But I do believe ultimately Congress is going to have to be involved in this — in one of the rare times that they actually do things in college sports.”
The NCAA’s defenses crumbled further after a unanimous 2021 Supreme Court decision loosened player compensation restrictions and additional lawsuits argued the NCAA’s business model violates antitrust law.
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