Time’s Up, Congress. Support Student-Athletes.
With college sports in full swing, thousands of student-athletes on campuses across the country are seeing the payoff from their months of hard work in the offseason. But the beauty of the college sports system that has meant so much to generations of athletes, students, parents, fans, and supporters alike is at risk if we don’t address many of the serious issues facing college athletics - including those surrounding name, image, and likeness (NIL).
As a former student-athlete, I’ll be the first to tell you that allowing college athletes to benefit from their NIL has created tremendous opportunities for athletes. However, there have been many unintended consequences that have gone a step further than the intentions of NIL, and we need changes otherwise we risk going past the point of no return in college sports.
President Charlie Baker of the NCAA recently introduced a proposal to address some of these challenges. But the years of inaction are a large reason why we have many of these issues to begin with, and the proposal from President Baker still leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to preserving future opportunities for female and Olympic sports, in particular.
The current state of NIL, and college athletics as a whole, are at a point where we need Congress to step in and provide guardrails for a reeling system before it's too late.
Until we have uniformity and transparency in the NIL market, which can only come from a national standard, the vastly different NIL laws across dozens of states will continue making it a complicated environment to navigate. Not only are student-athletes being exploited by NIL deals, but this unregulated environment poses a long-term threat to the sustainability of college athletics. Because individual states have passed their own NIL laws, an uneven playing field has emerged where universities in the same conference end up playing by different rules.
Further, I didn’t come to LSU to be an employee. Neither did my teammates. We came to be student-athletes and experience everything that comes with that. Having scholarships taxed or the possibility of being fired by having a bad game are just some of the realities college student-athletes could face if Congress does not step in.
The current state of collegiate athletics demands serious reform, and I’m encouraged by recent developments that are making a national solution to this problem much more likely. There is a new effort from the Coalition for the Future of College Athletics urging Congress to pass legislation supporting student-athletes like me, and the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing last fall on NIL and the long-term future of college athletics. There are also several bills circulating around Congress that would address many of the concerns that are top of mind for student-athletes.
I had a truly unforgettable experience as a student-athlete, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Future generations of student-athletes deserve this same opportunity, and by passing federal NIL legislation, Congress can ensure the long-term success of college athletics.
