NCAA releases statement urging Congress to pass Protect College Sports Act

The NCAA is losing control. This sentence has been proclaimed for a long time now, but it has become especially true over the last year. With the Name, Image and Likeness era of college sports on full blast, the governing body is as powerless as ever before. The courts have repeatedly undermined the NCAA’s authority, leaving the organization in a wildly precarious state.

Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney’s decision to grant college athletes from the high school class of 2022 another year of eligibility is producing outrage and confusion around the country. Yes, there are fans who celebrate this development, but the neutral spectators who already oppose NIL and the transfer portal find the idea of giving players a fifth year to compete to be indefensible.

NCAA President Charlie Baker certainly holds that opinion. He appealed directly to lawmakers following the U.S. District Court judge’s (Colorado) ruling, calling for a new piece of legislation to be put into effect.

“Without targeted intervention from Congress, college sports cannot set nationwide rules everyone can play by and without Congress, failed professionals will continue to use college sports as a fallback option — robbing the next class of young athletes of college scholarships,” the NCAA said in a statement, per On3’s Pete Nakos.

“It is long past time leaders across college sports call for the immediate passage of the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act — a bill supported by student-athlete leaders, Democrats, Republicans and NCAA schools from all three divisions. Today’s rulings and the chaos they bring to college sports are exactly why it’s time to pass this bill.”

President Donald Trump has already taken action against the current state of college sports, so perhaps he will back Baker’s proposal in Washington, D.C. Though, given the NCAA’s diminishing influence, it might be too late for meaningful regulation to be implemented. What was once billed as progress is now becoming a behemoth that can devour almost everything in its path.

What will Congress have to say about it?

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