Nov 7, 2023; Washington, DC, USA; Senator Chris Murphy speaks outside the Supreme Court Tuesday during arguments in the case, U.S. v. Rahimi. Mandatory Credit: Megan Smith-USA TODAY

Sen. Murphy reintroduces college athlete unionization bill

A day after the NCAA unveiled a proposal to allow some schools to directly compensate their athletes, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy reintroduced a bill that would allow college athletes to unionize.

The College Athlete Right to Organize Act (CARO) legislation introduced Wednesday by Murphy and co-sponsor Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders would amend the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to classify college athletes as employees. This designation would give college athletes the same rights as any employee in the United States to join together to improve their working conditions and wages, including the freedom to organize at their individual colleges or across colleges, and by sport or across sports.

In Murphy’s proposal, the NLRA would update the definition of public colleges and private educational institutions as employers “within the context of intercollegiate sports, allowing athletes to collectively bargain at any college, regardless of state laws that restrict their basic labor rights or potential state laws that define athletes as nonemployees.”

“All the breathless attention on this weekend’s College Football Playoff selection is a reminder that college sports are anything but amateur. There is no college sports industry and its $16 billion in annual revenues without the athletes’ labor,” Murphy said Wednesday in a press release.

“It’s past time they get a seat at the negotiating table. Instead of fighting athletes’ rights in courts and spending millions on lobbying Congress, the NCAA and its members should start negotiating directly with players on revenue-sharing, health and safety protections, and more. This legislation would make it easier for the athletes to realize their power, form unions, and start to collectively bargain.”

NCAA President Charlie Baker wrote in a letter to member schools Tuesday that top NCAA schools should be allowed to operate under different rules. His proposed framework would create a new subdivision in which athletes would avoid being categorized as employees and would be allowed to license their NIL rights directly to their schools.

“It kick-starts a long-overdue conversation among the membership that focuses on the differences that exist between schools, conferences and divisions and how to create more permissive and flexible rules across the NCAA that put student-athletes first,” Baker wrote. “Colleges and universities need to be more flexible, and the NCAA needs to be more flexible, too.”

This is not the first time Murphy, a vocal UConn fan, has attempted to address this issue. He and Massachusetts Rep. Lori Trahan have twice proposed legislation focused on name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities for student-athletes — the College Athlete Economic Freedom Act — in February of 2021 and again in July of this year.

Sanders — the Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee — and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren co-sponsored Murphy’s bill.

Companion legislation is being introduced in Congress by U.S. Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York.

–Field Level Media

A promotional  display for Pepsi featuring Wisconsin running back Braelon Allen is shown in November 2022 at a Pick 'n Save store in Fond du Lac, Wis. When the NCAA enacted Name Image Likeness (NIL) legislation in July 2021 it gave athletes the opportunity to earn money off endorsements as well as use their name in support of causes important to them.

NCAA proposal would allow direct compensation from schools to athletes

NCAA president Charlie Baker unveiled a proposal Tuesday that would allow some schools to directly compensate their athletes for the first time.

In a letter to NCAA member institutions, obtained by multiple media outlets, Baker said top NCAA schools should be allowed to operate under different rules.

“The growing financial gap between the highest-resourced colleges and universities and other schools in Division I has created a new series of challenges,” Baker wrote. “The challenges are competitive as well as financial and are complicated further by the intersection of name, image and likeness opportunities for student-athletes and the arrival of the Transfer Portal.”

The proposed changes would indicate a significant shift in the NCAA’s long-held business model that has denied schools the ability to provide any type of non-academic-based compensation to student athletes.

The proposed framework would create a new subdivision in which athletes would avoid being categorized as employees and would be allowed to license their NIL rights directly to their schools.

Which schools belong to the subdivision reportedly would be a decision made individually by each school, not by the NCAA. In addition to the ability to license NIL rights, each school will be required to invest a minimum of $30,000 per year per athlete into “an enhanced educational trust fund.” The school would be required to do this for at least half of the school’s athletes, and Title IX rules must be followed, meaning the funds would be allotted equally between male and female athletes.

“It kick-starts a long-overdue conversation among the membership that focuses on the differences that exist between schools, conferences and divisions and how to create more permissive and flexible rules across the NCAA that put student-athletes first,” Baker wrote. “Colleges and universities need to be more flexible, and the NCAA needs to be more flexible, too.”

Baker’s letter said the proposed framework “gives the educational institutions with the most visibility, the most financial resources and the biggest brands an opportunity to choose to operate with a different set of rules that more accurately reflect their scale and their operating model.”

The legal pressure to compensate student athletes has been growing in recent years, and since becoming NCAA president in March, Baker repeatedly has spoken of efforts to get help from Congress to create federal laws to govern college sports. So far, Congress has been reluctant to engage, with several lawmakers encouraging the NCAA to first try to work out the issues on its own. Baker, the former governor of Massachusetts, said these proposed changes can show Congress a potential model.

“(I)t is time for us — the NCAA — to offer our own forward-looking framework,” Baker said. “This framework must sustain the best elements of the student-athlete experience for all student-athletes, build on the financial and organizational investments that have positively changed the trajectory of women’s sports, and enhance the athletic and academic experience for student-athletes who attend the highest resourced colleges and universities.”

Any changes would have to be voted on by all NCAA schools, which gather next in January at their annual convention in Phoenix.

–Field Level Media