Sports

New College Sports Bill Pushes Revenue Sharing And Taxpayer-Funded Commission

Many believe the bill has good intentions.

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Congress has yet another bill to consider concerning providing college athletes the ability to commercialize their publicity rights.

The new legislation titled, The College Athlete Bill of Rights, co-authored by Sens. Cory Booker and Richard Blumenthal, includes some novel elements for name, image and likeness proponents. For instance, the bill seeks to allow college athletes to enter into deals with apparel brands that compete with their university’s apparel arrangements; however, there is a requirement that the athletes wear the school-sponsored gear (other than footwear, which they can choose) during team events. Additionally, college athletes will not be barred from endorsing companies in any industry if the school is not also prohibited from endorsing companies in that same industry.

For instance, if the bill became law, a college athlete would be allowed to sign a deal with Puma even though his school is sponsored by Nike. He would be permitted to wear Puma cleats on the field, but the remainder of his uniform would be Nike-approved apparel provided by the school. Additionally, if a school has a deal with a gambling company like PointsBet (See: University of Colorado), then the athletes at the school would also be able to enter into similar gambling sponsorships.

However, the portion of the Booker/Blumenthal bill that is appropriately receiving the majority of peoples’ attention deals with a requirement that schools share revenue with certain college athletes. The senators would like to see athletes in sports that generate revenue in an amount greater than that which is spent on scholarships to receive a 50% share of the net money after scholarships are paid. As explained by Dan Murphy of ESPN,

In FBS-level football, for example, the commission would add together the revenue generated by all 130 football programs and subtract the total costs of scholarships at all those programs. Half of the money that is left would be distributed evenly among all players at the FBS level. The sports that currently generate enough money to qualify for this revenue sharing, according to Booker’s office, are football (both FBS and FCS levels), men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball.

The other part of the proposal that is being scrutinized revolves around the creation of a Commission on College Athletics to suggest changes to rules as well as investigate wrongdoing, and receive $50 million in taxpayer funding for its first two years.

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“It’s strangely over the top, and taxpayer-funded … that’s hilarious” stated one sports executive on condition of anonymity. “Nonrevenue sports are going to get crushed in 2021 and probably beyond for at least another year or two. We’ll see what the athletic department deficits really are in a few months from 2020.”

Many believe the bill has good intentions, but that it solves one problem of too much power in the hands of the NCAA with another — giving too much control to the government. There is also a concern that it could have a negative effect on nonrevenue sports, which have already been crushed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This [will] literally destroy college athletics as we [k]now it, full stop,” tweeted sports agent Jason Belzer. “Every non-revenue sport would be gutted. You’d literally have schools playing football and basketball on the men’s side and that’s it.”

One thing everyone would agree on is that it would be a game-changer if the bill becomes law. Most people also believe that these are rights that college athletes deserve. However, will it come at a cost to many who participate in nonrevenue sports?

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Darren Heitner is the founder of Heitner Legal. He is the author of How to Play the Game: What Every Sports Attorney Needs to Know, published by the American Bar Association, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. You can reach him by email at heitner@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter at @DarrenHeitner.

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