The Power Five conferences joined together to voice their support on Friday for a bipartisan proposal announced Thursday by three U.S. senators that would address name, image and likeness rules in college sports. The conferences referred to the proposal from Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) as "thoughtful work on legislation to protect and benefit student-athletes."
Plenty of political hurdles remain before any Congressional legislation superseding the patchwork of state laws surrounding NIL would be enacted, but the bill proposed Thursday called for the creation of the "College Athletics Corporation," a quasi-governmental agency that would provide oversight, rules and protections for student-athlete contracts.
The proposal marks the most substantive step yet toward the mutually agreeable national solution that collegiate athletics leaders have been lobbying for in Washington, D.C., over the past two years since college athletes gained the right to profit on NIL.
"We are pleased to see that momentum continues building in both the Senate and the House to address this issue," read Friday's joint statement. "Our conferences welcome additional efforts in the future, and we look forward to engaging with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to continue making progress on bipartisan legislation in Congress."
Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff said Friday during his Pac-12 Media Day address that he expects two more bills to surface "in the next week" and for "negotiations" to follow among the various pieces of legislation. Ultimately, he referred to Thursday's proposal from Blumenthal, Booker and Moran as a "really great start."
"There's work to be done on that bill," Kliavkoff said. "But it's a bipartisan bill and covers a lot of the things that I think are good for college athletics and for student-athletes. I think it's a great first step."
The bipartisan proposal's release also comes amid a transition in NCAA leadership from former president Mark Emmert to Charlie Baker, who is in his fifth month on the job. The former Massachusetts mayor was pegged for the role in part because of his political background at a time when the NCAA needs legislative assistance.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, the longest-tenured and most powerful of the Power Five commissioners, reiterated the necessity of federal NIL legislation while speaking at SEC Media Days this week prior to Thursday's proposal from the bipartisan trio of senators.
"Regardless of my opinion or your opinion about the ability for Congress to act in our current environment, we have a responsibility to educate, communicate and to try to seek a Congressional resolution, because only Congress can adequately resolve these issues," Sankey said.
