As college athletes are increasingly asserting their collective voice amid the coronavirus pandemic and movement for racial justice, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, along with seven of their colleagues, announced on Thursday a framework for a new “college athletes bill of rights.”
The framework — currently only a proposal — looks to secure greater financial and educational opportunities for college athletes in addition to enhancing health and safety standards. The senators intend to introduce formal legislation in the Senate based off these ideas in the coming months.
Blumenthal and Murphy have been among the most outspoken senators to criticize the NCAA. Most recently, the former denounced the NCAA’s handling of the name, image and likeness issue, called for universities to ensure the safety of their athletes by canceling the football season in early July and successfully pressured the NCAA to ban schools from having their athletes sign COVID-19 liability waivers. Murphy has released multiple reports on issues in college athletics and in June co-wrote an op-ed with the Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green calling for a host of reforms within the NCAA.
“The present state of college athletics is undeniably exploitive. The literal blood, sweat, and tears of student athletes fuels a $14 billion industry, but until very recently, those students received little in return and were vulnerable to being tossed aside. Reforming this system is about basic justice: racial justice, economic justice, and health care justice,” Blumenthal said in a release. “Our framework is centered around the principle of empowering athletes. We want to give college athletes the tools they need to protect their economic rights, pursue their education, prioritize their health and safety, and most critically, hold their schools and organizations like the NCAA accountable.”
“Early last year, I set out to expose the inequities and civil rights issues in college sports and COVID-19 has only exacerbated them. We can’t return to business as usual—where a multi-billion dollar industry lines the pockets of predominately white executives all while majority-Black athletes can’t profit from their labor,” added Murphy. “The College Athletes Bill of Rights lays out the reforms college sports desperately need so we can finally put athletes’ economic rights, health and wellbeing, and educational opportunities first. This isn’t radical thinking—it’s just the right thing to do.”
The college athlete bill of rights will call for the following, as outlined in the release:
fair and equitable compensation, permitting athletes to benefit off their name, image and likeness “with minimal restrictions” and earn compensation through revenue-sharing agreements with athletics associations, conferences and schools
enforceable evidence-based health, safety and wellness standards that better protect athletes from COVID-19, concussions, and other sports-related injuries or illnesses, while holding coaches accountable for “dangerous and abusive decision-making”
improved educational outcomes and opportunities, including offering athletes “commensurate lifetime scholarships” and other efforts to provide them full educational experiences
comprehensive health care coverage and support with sport-related injuries including offering financial support to both current and former college athletes with medical expenses from sports-related injuries or illnesses
accountability across college sports that would require schools to publish annually a public report of total revenues and expenditures, hours of athletic activities, academic outcomes and more
freedom for college athletes to attend the institution of their choice, getting rid of penalties that restrict athletes from transferring or changing schools after signing a national letter of intent
oversight panel as a permanent commission to elevate athletes’ voices
The framework has been endorsed by many college athlete advocacy groups, including the National College Players Association.
Alexa Philippou can be reached at aphilippou@courant.com
