Senators Roll Out Proposal Outlining College Athlete Bill of Rights

Ten U.S. Senators announced a proposal that lays the groundwork for a college athletes bill of rights that will guarantee fair compensation, improved educational opportunities, and health and safety standards. The framework is designed to protect the rights of athletes who participate in college sports and to ensure justice and opportunity are extended to all.

Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Brian Schatz (D-HI), announced that formal legislation will be announced in the coming months. 

“Our framework is centered around the principle of empowering athletes,” Senator Blumenthal said. “We want to give college athletes the tools they need to protect their economic rights, pursue their education, prioritize their health and safety, and most critically, hold their schools and organizations like the NCAA accountable.”

Issues of fairness and justice in college athletics are deeply personal for Senator Booker, a former high school All-American and Division 1 football player at Stanford University. He has publicly called for allowing college athletes to be compensated for their “name, image, and likeness” rights and requiring colleges and universities to cover athletes’ medical expenses for injuries sustained during college competition for at least 10 years after eligibility. 

In May, Sen. Booker and Sen. Murphy criticized the recommendations included in the NCAA’s Board of Governors report on college-athlete compensation as insufficient and urged more sweeping reforms. In June, Booker and Blumenthal announced a bill—the Collegiate Athlete Pandemic Safety Act—to ban the use of legally dubious COVID-19 liability waivers, safeguard the scholarship of any athlete who decided not to participate this year out of fear of contracting COVID-19, and require athletic departments to comply with CDC-issued health and safety guidelines related to COVID-19.

The framework is endorsed by the United Steelworkers, the National College Players Association, the Sports Fans Coalition, Color of Change, College Athletes for No More Names, College Athletes Unity, Athletes Igniting Action, the Coalition for African Diaspora Student-Athletes, and the Authors of ‘NCAA Exploitation No More.’

The College Athletes Bill of Rights will provide:

• Fair and equitable compensation, including allowing college athletes to market their name, image, and likeness (NIL), both individually and as a group, with minimal restrictions and provide college athletes with revenue-sharing agreements with athletic associations, conferences, and their member schools that result in fair and equitable compensation. Currently, college athletes are the driving force behind a $15 billion industry with large media deals, and luxury facilities for fans that are comparable with those seen at the professional level. Yet college athletes are blocked from sharing in any of the profit they help create. The senators hope the framework will allow college athletes to retain authority to determine and establish fair NIL agreements and have a clear voice in crafting rules at their college.

• The framework will also develop and enforce evidence-based health, safety, and wellness standards to ensure college athletes are kept healthy and protected from undue risk related to their participation in sports and the COVID-19 pandemic, and that coaches are held accountable for decision-making.

• The senators hope the framework will provide college athletes with commensurate lifetime scholarships while increasing transparency and accountability to ensure college athletes receive the educational opportunities they deserve and have earned. Fewer than six in 10 entering college freshman students graduate in four years, and most of those students do not experience the strain and time constraints that college athletes face.

• The framework also outlines comprehensive health care coverage and support with sport-related injuries, and would increase financial assistance for current and former college athletes with medical bills and out-of-pocket expenses from sport-related injuries and illnesses from COVID-19. Currently, there is no uniformity in health care coverage across athletic programs or any consistent commitment to help with injuries that carry life-long consequences.

• It would also require each school to provide more detailed annual public reporting that describes total sources of revenues and expenditures, including compensation for athletic department personnel and booster donations, as well as reporting on the number of hours athletes commit to athletic activities, including all mandatory workouts, “voluntary” workouts, film study, and game travel, and academic outcomes, disaggregated by athletic program, race and ethnicity, and gender.

• The senators pointed out the framework would also ban restrictions and penalties that prevent college athletes from attending the institution of their choice, including penalties associated with transferring schools and penalties hidden behind National Letters of Intent. 

• The framework would also establish a permanent commission, led by current and former college athletes, policy experts, academics, and administration officials, to give athletes a meaningful voice and level the playing field by establishing baseline rules that govern college sports.