Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark on Protect College Sports Act
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark on the proposed Protect College Sports Act and how he’s spent plenty of time on Capitol Hill.
- Colorado coach Deion Sanders said he was asked to shoot a political commercial endorsing the Protect College Sports Act.
- The NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus oppose the bill, stating it limits athletes’ rights.
- The legislation is supported by the NCAA and major college sports leagues to stabilize college athletics.
Colorado coach Deion Sanders recently became one of the biggest public supporters of the Protect College Sports Act and even filmed a new political advertisement endorsing this big pending political football in Congress.
In the advertisement, Sanders said this legislation “keeps men’s and women’s sports strong” and “strengthens Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).”
Sanders, 59, is an influential voice in this regard. He’s a former HBCU coach from Jackson State in Mississippi and is one of only 14 Black head coaches out of 138 in major college football — a sport where about half the players were Black in recent years. Sanders also previously has supported expanded rights for college athletes and benefited from unlimited annual player transfers as a coach.
So then why are the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus against this bill that Sanders supports?
Why are athletes’ rights groups against it, too?
And does it really help HBCUs?
According to the president of the NAACP, it only offers “vague promises” to HBCUs.
Here is a breakdown of their positions on this legislation below. By contrast, Sanders didn’t want to talk about his reasons for endorsing it.
Deion Sanders said he hasn’t ‘thought about it’ since
A reporter asked Sanders about it at his weekly news conference Tuesday before his team plays at Northwestern on Sept. 19.
“I was asked to do something,” Sanders said about his support for the bill. “I did it because I thought it was the right thing to do, along with certain colleagues of mine that shared in on doing their version of it as well. But… I shot it and that was it. I haven’t thought about it since.”
Asked if he thought the bill was good for the game, Sanders said, “We’re good for the game this weekend, Northwestern.”
Where does this college sports legislation stand?
The Protect College Sports Act is a bipartisan bill pending in the U.S. Congress that aims to “stabilize” college sports with an antitrust exemption after several recent years of upheaval, including unlimited annual player transfers and the huge new costs related to paying players. Former Alabama coach Nick Saban is another big supporter of the bill and is friendly with Sanders through their endorsement deals with insurance company Aflac.
But the Congressional Black Caucus and NAACP are against this legislation for reasons that go beyond HBCUs. Athletes’ advocates are also against it because they say it gives too much power to colleges and the NCAA while capping the pay of players.
Where do HBCUs stand on the Protect College Sports Act?
The bill has had support from HBCU leaders, including the commissioners of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC). One reason for that support is that it creates a five-year grant program of $180 million a year to “support long-term improvements” to the broadband, information and media infrastructure of HBCUs.
However, Athletes.org, an advocacy organization for college athletics, noted this investment in HBCUs is only “authorized” by the bill and is not guaranteed.
“It does not actually appropriate a single dollar,” the organization said in a news release. For HBCUs to receive the funding, the organization noted a future Congress would need to appropriate the money.
“Potential HBCU funding should not be used as a bargaining chip to make an unrelated, permanent antitrust exemption more politically acceptable,” Athletes.org noted in its opposition to the bill Sept. 14.
Where do other Black leaders stand on the bill?
The Congressional Black Caucus said in a news release Aug. 6 that it doesn’t support the bill in its current form. It questioned giving new federal protections to powerful athletic institutions while those same institutions “remained largely silent” amid efforts by some states to dilute the voting power of Black voters through gerrymandering.
The CBC said the bill falls short for Black athletes while the legislative process for it failed to meaningfully incorporate Black perspectives, including from Black athletes, Black coaches and HBCUs.
The bill “grants sweeping new legal protections to powerful institutions while failing to adequately protect the athletes whose talent fuels this multibillion-dollar industry,” the CBC said in its news release.
The NAACP opposes the legislation, too
The labor union federation AFL-CIO released a statement Tuesday from several athletes and player leaders, including NAACP President Derrick Johnson. He had similar reasons for opposing it.
“The so-called Protect College Sports Act does little to actually protect the student-athletes who make this multi-billion-dollar industry possible,”Johnson said in the statement. “Instead, it shields powerful institutions from accountability while asking Black athletes to surrender their rights, their leverage, and their voice. HBCUs deserve direct federal investment, not a political trade-off that offers vague promises of funding in exchange for weakening athletes’ ability to organize, bargain collectively, and secure long-term health, economic, and educational protections.”
Major sports institutions support it
The NCAA and all the major college sports leagues support, including the Big Ten, Southeastern Conference and Big 12. Sanders’ employer at Colorado is part of that, too. That’s where he filmed the commercial on campus and wore Colorado gear during the commercial.
The legislation would bring some legal certainty to these institutions after years of lawsuits that upended NCAA rules, including a lawsuit that paved the way for unlimited transfers every year as opposed to the previous rule of allowing players to transfer to a new school only one time without penalty.
Sanders has built his roster around these transfer players since his hiring at Colorado in December 2022. His team this year is 2-0 and has more than 40 new scholarship transfers from other four-year colleges.
But this legislation would allow the NCAA to go back to the old rule of one transfer without penalty, with some exceptions.
“The PCSA protects schools, not athletes,” Athletes.org executive director Brandon Copeland said in a statement Tuesday. “It rolls back athletes’ hard-earned rights while protecting the financial interests of the NCAA, its member conferences, universities and coaches.”
The legislation recently advanced in the Senate with 74-24 vote
The bill still has some hurdles to clear to become law. It advanced in the Senate by a 74-24 vote on Sept. 15 but still needs to pass a final vote in that chamber before being considered by the House of Representatives. President Donald Trump is expected to sign it into law if it rallies enough support to pass both chambers of Congress.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com