A new piece of legislation is being introduced to Congress by Senators Cory Booker and Richard Blumenthal called the College Athletes Bill of Rights. 

The bill, which has miles to go before being made a law, allows student athletes to accept money for their names, images, and likeness – or as it’s also known, NIL. But, the bill includes even more that will likely ruffle the feathers of those in NCAA power positions. The Senators would like to see athletes receive a share of profits from revenue generating sports and be provided long term health care. 

There’s also a provision to protect college athletes from athletic departments trying to influence their major or class choices. Some student athletes have reported being told not to choose particular majors or classes because it takes away too much time from their sport. 

Another equally important part of the bill requires trainers and team medical personnel to be independent of the athletic department. This helps to keep athletes from being pushed back to competition before they’re fully healed or prevents a misdiagnosis that benefits the school but could harm the athlete further, such as dismissing concussions as “not that big of a deal.” 

Reform is long overdue. 

The fact that some schools do not cover completely – or in some cases not cover at all – the injuries athletes suffer is reason enough for there to be a provision for medical care.  Most jarring is that some live with injuries caused by sports programs for years after they are no longer enrolled — including ones such as CTE. CTE has become a hot topic after many high-profile cases have come to the forefront in the NFL. It is a progressive degenerative disease caused by repeated brain trauma or concussions. 

The NCAA and big time universities have been making billions of dollars off of the blood, sweat, and tears of student athletes. It’s time for serious changes, but how long before any change takes place and how extensive those changes will be are the big questions. There are competing bills being introduced that give student athletes the chance to make money off their NIL but still give a huge amount of power to the NCAA. The NCAA is also said to be writing its own piece of legislation. 

There’s too much money at stake and too much power being taken away from the NCAA in the College Athletes Bill of Rights for it to have much of a chance of passing as it is. 

Whatever happens, all parties are trying to get something in place to preempt a law set to go into effect in Florida in summer 2021 that allows college athletes to profit from NIL. Any federal legislation would supplant state laws on payments to athletes.

In the end, the most important concern needs to be the student athletes and I don’t think anything that favors the NCAA will be in the best interest of them.

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