Congress members reintroduce NCAA bill seeking presidential commission

WASHINGTON -- College sports and the federal government blended together again Thursday when four members of Congress reintroduced legislation designed to change the NCAA.

Reps. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) and Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) previously proposed in 2013 the NCAA Accountability Act to address health and safety, scholarship lengths and due process for athletes. They are reintroducing the bill to include the idea of a Presidential Commission of Intercollegiate Athletics while adding Reps. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) and John Katko (R-N.Y.) as co-sponsors.

The presidential commission, introduced by Rush in a bill last January after efforts by retiring Rep. Jim Moran, would allow Congress to examine college sports issues such as the education of athletes, how the sports are financed, health and safety, and due process in infractions cases. The 17-person commission could make recommendations to the White House and Congress.

Rush said the bill is aimed at the “abysmal cesspool that’s called college athletics in America.”

“In my mind, the NCAA is the last plantation in America,” Rush said. “Certainly it takes the layman’s capital and talent and the skills of its participants under the guise of being amateurs, promises them education, but then it exploits their labor -- without pay I might add … It should be the National Cabal of Collegiate Athletes.”

Putting the outlandish rhetoric aside, it’s not clear how much support in Congress there is for Thursday’s bill. Similar scrutiny in the past has led to hearings and some changes by the NCAA and Congress, although not actual legislation.

"People will say why is Congress engaged in college sports?" Beatty said. "Talk is not enough."

Dent said the co-sponsors will push for hearings and believes there are more Congressional members who want a presidential commission. "I think there’s a lot of momentum out there because I think there’s a general sense that the NCAA is incapable of reforming itself," Dent said.

Part of the bill aims to address four-year scholarships. The NCAA passed legislation last January that the association has said would prevent athletes from having their scholarships non-renewed due to athletic reasons.

NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said the association has no comment on the bill. Last December, NCAA president Mark Emmert told CBSSports.com that if a presidential commission is established, “I hope it’s focused and meaningful and that it’s not done for political reasons, but because people are generally interested in the issue of college sports.”

In 2014, the NCAA spent $580,000 on Congressional lobbying -- a small amount by D.C. standards, but a total that exceeded what the association spent on lobbying combined from 2011 to 2013. The NCAA has spent $110,000 on lobbying in 2015 as of April 20, according to OpenSecrets.org. Records show that lobbyists for the Big 12, North Carolina State and Kent State have been working on the presidential commission legislation.

“No one is saying the NCAA should be disbanded,” Katko said. “But it certainly wouldn’t hurt for the NCAA to have someone take a fresh look at how they’re handling things.”

Katko’s district is home to Syracuse University, which was recently hit with major NCAA violations in men’s basketball. Katko criticized the NCAA for not having a consistent enforcement process.

“It’s clear the NCAA went out of its way to humiliate and punish Jim Boeheim,” Katko said.

The reintroduction of the bill comes at a time when college sports is debating congressional intervention. Given the pressure facing the NCAA due to litigation, some people want an antitrust exemption for the NCAA that would provide some control of college sports to the government in exchange for protection from antitrust law.

The NCAA has appealed a decision in the Ed O’Bannon case that would allow football and men’s basketball players to be paid for use of their names, images and likenesses at an amount the NCAA could cap at no less than $5,000 per year. In the coming months, a class certification hearing will be held on sports attorney Jeffrey Kessler’s Martin Jenkins lawsuit that seeks a free market for players to be paid.

“I think it would be very difficult for the Congress to grant an antitrust exemption,” Dent said. “I think it would be a very high bar.”

Rush’s previous bill regarding a presidential commission included examining the possibility of athletes being paid for commercial use of their names, images and likenesses. Rush said he believes the NCAA is “coming very, very close” to violating antitrust laws, if it's not doing so already.

Dent said nothing in the latest legislation prohibits “stipends” for athletes. “We’re more or less silent on that,” he said.