Blumenthal, Murphy & Booker Announce College Athletes Bill of Rights

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Today U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), the Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade, and Consumer Protection, with jurisdiction over the NCAA and amateur athletes, Chris Murphy (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kirstin Gillibrand (D-NY), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) today announced the framework for a new college athletes bill of rights that will advance justice and opportunity for college athletes.

Blumenthal previewed the framework with Booker while serving as Ranking Member during a July Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “Protecting the Integrity of College Athletics.” The proposal will guarantee fair and equitable compensation, enforceable health and safety standards, and improved educational opportunities for all college athletes.

College sports have the unique ability to transcend partisan divisions and cultural differences to unite millions of Americans as fans. Yet, college sports have also come to reflect many of the inequalities that permeate everyday life in America—where systems fail to protect those under the charge of others, where hard-working Americans are blocked from sharing in the profits they help create, and where systemic and structural racism disadvantage and exploit people of color.

“The present state of college athletics is undeniably exploitive. The literal blood, sweat, and tears of student athletes fuels a $14 billion industry, but until very recently, those students received little in return and were vulnerable to being tossed aside. Reforming this system is about basic justice: racial justice, economic justice, and health care justice,” Blumenthal said. “Our framework is centered around the principle of empowering athletes. 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.”

“Early last year, I set out to expose the inequities and civil rights issues in college sports and COVID-19 has only exacerbated them. We can’t return to business as usual—where a multi-billion dollar industry lines the pockets of predominately white executives all while majority-Black athletes can’t profit from their labor,” said Murphy. “The College Athletes Bill of Rights lays out the reforms college sports desperately need so we can finally put athletes’ economic rights, health and wellbeing, and educational opportunities first. This isn’t radical thinking—it’s just the right thing to do.”

“As a former college athlete, this issue is personal to me. The NCAA has failed generations of young men and women even when it comes to their most basic responsibility—keeping the athletes under their charge healthy and safe,” Booker said. “The time has come for change. We have an opportunity to do now what should have been done decades ago—to step in and provide true justice and opportunity for college athletes across the country. Our college athletes bill of rights establishes a new framework for fairness, equity, and safety in college athletics, and holds colleges accountable to these standards.”

In February, Blumenthal raised concerns regarding the current compensation system and fairness within college athletics at a hearing of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade, and Consumer Protection on “Name, Image, and Likeness: The State of Intercollegiate Athlete Compensation.” During the hearing, Blumenthal call the “exploitive” college athletics system “as antiquated as leather helmets.”

In May, Murphy and Booker criticized the recommendations included in the NCAA’s Board of Governors report on college athlete compensation as insufficient and urged more sweeping reforms. Blumenthal and U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS), the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade, and Consumer Protection, also released a statement calling for greater action to support and empower college athletes.

Murphy has been an outspoken advocate on the issue of reforming college sports. In June, Murphy and Golden State Warriors player Draymond Green co-authored an op-ed for ESPN on how college sports must change following the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide protests for racial justice. Last December, Murphy released his third and final report in a series of reports that considered the range of problems within college athletics. The report, “Madness, Inc.: How College Sports Leave Athletes Broken and Abandoned,” examines the ways in which colleges and the NCAA neglect athletes’ health and received praise from players and advocates across the college athletics community. Murphy’s first Madness, Inc. report examined the billions in revenues produced by college sports and how that money enriches nearly everyone but the athletes themselves. Coaches, former athletes, and advocates have spoken out in support of Murphy’s first report. Murphy’s second report examined the ways in which colleges fail in providing athletes the education they deserve. This report similarly received praise from coaches, former athletes and advocates.

In June, Blumenthal and Booker 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.

In July, Blumenthal pressed witnesses representing college athletics programs on the legality and morality of COVID-19 liability waivers during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation on “Exploring a Compensation Framework for Intercollegiate Athletes.” Earlier this month, under pressure from Blumenthal, Booker, and others, the NCAA announced that it would prohibit member schools from requiring athletes to sign liability waivers. The NCAA also committed to honor scholarships of college athletes who opt out due to COVID-19, which would be required by Blumenthal-Booker legislation.

Formal legislation reflecting the framework unveiled today will be formally introduced in the Senate in the coming months.

The framework is endorsed by the following groups: the United Steelworkers, the National College Players Association, the Sports Fans Coalition, College Athletes for No More Names, College Athletes Unity, Athletes Igniting Action, and the Coalition for African Diaspora Student-Athletes.

The College Athletes Bill of Rights will provide:

Fair and equitable compensation. Allow 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. Though college athletes power a $16 billion industry featuring billion-dollar media deals, million-dollar coaching salaries, and luxury facilities rivaling those in professional leagues, college athletes are blocked from sharing in any of the profit they help create. Given the NCAA’s history of athlete exploitation, any legislation designed to provide fair and equitable compensation to college athletes should prevent the NCAA from restricting or regulating athlete compensation. College athletes should retain authority to determine and establish fair NIL agreements and have a clear voice in crafting rules at their college, instead of facing undue control and micromanagement primarily motivated by profit.

Enforceable evidence-based health, safety, and wellness standards. Develop and aggressively 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 dangerous and abusive decision-making. Since 2000, more than 30 college football players have died from heat-related illnesses due to workouts that went too far, while the coaches and trainers responsible rarely face consequences. And for decades, the NCAA has failed to attach any penalties to their concussion guidelines -- making them more like suggestions than rules.

Improved educational outcomes and opportunities. 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. Graduation rates for Black athletes are significantly lower than white athletes—just 55 percent of Black male athletes from the Power 5 conferences graduate within six years. Even more, some college athletes are pressured toward enrolling in less challenging classes and majors to allow for more time and focus on sports, or so that their coach can cash-in on bonuses associated with higher grade point averages, while other colleges engage in academic fraud to keep their athletes eligible.

Comprehensive health care coverage and support with sport-related injuries. 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. Today, the college sports industry makes billions off the physical exploits of unpaid athletes, but bears almost no long term responsibility to pay for the damage done to athletes’ bodies during the time they wear the school’s uniform.

Accountability across college sports. 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.

Freedom for college athletes to attend the institution of their choice. 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. Too often, high school students are pressured to sign National Letters of Intent that perpetuate the power imbalance between athletes and the colleges that recruit them: the school can withdraw from the agreement without penalty, while the college athlete can lose a full season and year of eligibility if they decide to attend a different college.

An oversight panel that gives athletes a real voice. 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.

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