Pressure is growing on Capitol Hill to focus on bipartisan legislation to reform college sports – but sources question whether congressional leaders can muster enough votes to pass a bill after Tuesday’s midterms, On The Money has learned.
That pressure is being applied by a powerful force: Randy Levine, president of the New York Yankees and vice chair of President Trump’s Roundtable on Fixing College Sports and his fellow members. They have been doing yeoman’s work trying to reform the insane and pernicious money grab that has engulfed college sports.
Now he’s trying one more push to get the bill – which has already passed the Senate with bipartisan votes led by GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Democrat Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington – to President Trump’s desk.
It won’t be easy because, let’s face it, nothing is easy in DC these days given the partisan political climate. There’s also the lobbying operation mounted by certain interested parties to kill reform efforts.
If you have been reading this column, you know the reforms began with Trump earlier in the year appointing Levine along with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to lead a blue-ribbon panel that made recommendations to Congress to reform the business side of college sports – which has gotten crazy following court ruling over what’s known as the “Name, Image and Likeness” (NIL) system.
Schools have since been diverting resources including donor money from academic pursuits, Olympic and women’s sports so they can woo college football and basketball stars with massive, pro-like endorsements and other deals.
You would think this is an easy lift for House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Republican from Louisiana, and Dem House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries: President Trump wants it done and so do many prominent Democrats. There’s a carveout for Historically Black Colleges – so-called HBCU’s — to get additional money for under-funded programs. Student athletes are generally in favor of the reforms and have participated in the process.
Plus, the Senate earlier passed bipartisan legislation with 77 votes that adds many of the roundtable’s fixes. Among them are parameters on how much players can be paid; reforms to the so-called portal that allows student athletes to jump to as many schools as they want during their college playing careers.
Not so fast. Republicans are said to be getting cold feet for various reasons – including, it appears, lobbying from sports agents who have an obvious vested interest in the status quo (aka more money in their pockets). And some progressive Dems want no reforms. The lefties would like to turn student athletes into pros and unionize them despite legal hurdles – and despite the money grab wreaking havoc at all but the biggest schools.
Sports agents, of course, worried about their large paydays. They have been joined by trial lawyers who have been suing to allow pros, particularly in football, to return to college and make even more money because the system is so broken. Third-party booster organizations that use a loophole in the rule to raise money to woo high-priced student athletes would have their power dramatically curbed, so they’re making the voice heard in DC as well.
Johnson said he would take up the bill in the lame duck even if the GOP loses the House (he would be speaker until January). Jeffries, the possible (or even likely) next speaker, remains on the fence, I am told, even though he initially came out against the legislation.
That’s why I am told Levine wrote the letter to Johnson and Jeffries to reiterate what’s at stake, how most colleges are begging for reform and how even many Dems want change.
Or as Levine put it: the bill will fix a “system that has led to colleges bleeding money, raiding their endowments, cutting women’s and Olympic sports and raising tuition and student fees.
It also will eliminate the daily patchwork of local court decisions, state executive orders and tax preferences that seem to grow widespread every day. As such, the PCSA as currently drafted solves the largest problems driving the collegiate athletics crisis.”
Reps for Johnson and Jeffries had no immediate comment.