College Athletes Protection & Compensation Act
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College Athletes Protection and Compensation Act Discussion Draft by Senators Booker, Blumenthal, and Moran Background College sports are a big business. Division I athletics generate over $15 billion in revenues annually. There are many winners in the business of college sports, but, until recently, the athletes — the young men and women most directly responsible for building college sports into what it is — were kept almost entirely from sharing in the prosperity. The discussion draft of the College Athletes Protection and Compensation Act would reform and strengthen college athletics, and make sure athletes get the support and protections they need while setting baseline, national standards.
Summary The College Athletes Protection and Compensation Act sets fair, clear, and enforceable rules to protect the economic opportunities, educational outcomes, and health of college athletes. It would:
• Establish National NIL Standards & Protect Athletes’ Economic Opportunities: The measure would establish the College Athletics Corporation (CAC), a central oversight entity that would set, administer, and enforce rules and standards to protect athletes who enter into endorsement contracts. Athletes would be allowed to have representatives assisting them with contracts, finances, marketing, and brand management, and institutions would be prohibited from punishing athletes for receiving food, rent, medical expenses, insurance, tuition, fees, books, and transportation from a third party.
• Establish a Medical Trust Fund & Cover Injured Athletes’ Out-of-Pocket Costs: Schools and the Medical Trust Fund would cover the out-of-pocket expenses for injuries and other long-term conditions resulting from athletes’ participation in sports. The Trust Fund would cover medical expenses for college athletes diagnosed with significant long-term conditions related to their participation in college athletics, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy and any other traumatic injuries.
• Prioritize Athletes’ Educational Outcomes: Athletes would retain their aid covering tuition, books, and other fees until they graduate. Institutions would be required to continue offering the aid in the case of suffering a career-ending injury and being cut from a team.
• Safeguard Athletes’ Health and Wellness: The framework would establish health, wellness, and safety standards to protect college athletes from serious injury, mistreatment, abuse, and death.
• Bring Transparency to College Athletics: Schools would be required to report revenues and expenditures of each athletics program, the average number of hours that college athletes spent on college athletic events, and academic outcomes and majors for college athletes.
• Ensure Gender Parity in Tournaments: Athletic associations must provide men and women college athletes access to equivalent facilities and services during tournaments.
Comment The College Athletes Protection and Compensation Act is being released as a discussion draft to gather input and build consensus prior to introduction. Members of the public that wish to offer comments are invited to submit them to the authors by August 20th to: College_Sports_Comment@blumenthal.senate.gov.