Given the 2021-22 recruiting chaos created by differing state laws, lack of NCAA enforcement of inducement and extra benefit controls, and the call for common guardrails, what should be the role of Congress? What do H.R. 850, the College Athlete Freedom Act sponsored by Representative Lori Trahan (MA) and other federal NIL bills propose? What is the current status of … Read more
Included in this program are the presentations of national awards to Sedona Prince, University of Oregon basketball player and journalism students who have excelled in investigative reporting on intercollegiate athletics. Allen Sack, Co-Founder of The Drake Group delivers a keynote address. In the midst of the current governance, NIL and athlete exploitation chaos, can a … Read more
How can Congress address the economic and educational exploitation of college athletes: lack of adequate long- and short-term insurance and medical expense coverage for athletics injuries, low graduation rates for minority basketball and football players, lack of professional codes of conduct that protect athletes from abuse. The panel examines Senator Cory Booker’s Framework for legislation mandating a College … Read more
Is it possible for Congress to give college athletes the right to unionize under the National Labor Relations Act in order to create a better balance of power between athletes and their institutions? How important is it to retain the athlete’s “student” relationship to the university? If athletes were allowed to “unionize,” should athletes aggregate by … Read more
Panelists explore how rights of free speech operate in the context of intercollegiate athletics including speech used abusively by athletes, athletes protesting abuse by coaches, trainers or other university staff, athletes engaging in political protest, coaches’ efforts to control athletes’ use of social media and commercial speech that is invoked in the context of NIL … Read more
Over the last few decades, reported stories of athlete abuse in college athletics have become more frequent and more egregious. Incidents of abuse – including physical, mental, and sexual – have been swept under the carpet, and perpetrators are often able to resign and find employment at other institutions. The media as a whole is … Read more
Following decades of enormous legal fees challenging rules restraining college athlete employment, facing hundreds of concussion-related lawsuits, and then suffering an adverse June 2022 Alston U.S. Supreme Court decision that eviscerated its college athlete eligibility system built on control through use of “amateur status” regulations, the organization appeared to freeze based on fear of future … Read more
Intercollegiate athletics, especially at its highest levels, exploits people of color. Panelists examine the many ways that Black and brown college athletes are used for their talent, denied opportunities to excel in the classroom, and are excluded from leadership positions in college sports administration and coaching. Experts and an activist former college athlete speak on … Read more
The NCAA has been frozen with indecision since the June U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting its “amateur status” rules. Fearful of legal responsibility, the organization is pursuing a constitutional convention restructure that reeks of throwing its conference and institutional members under the litigation bus. College athletics has lost its way because of a failure of governance – … Read more
The Drake Group brings together Title IX experts and an NCAA D-I conference commissioner to discuss the new reality of the college athlete name, image, and likeness (NIL) marketplace and how it relates to the Title IX promotion, publicity, recruiting and NIL education obligations of educational institutions and the entities they control, including surrogate organizations … Read more