Special to the News
The University of Alabama and Auburn University oppose the Protect College Sports Act and urge the Senate not to advance it in its current form.
The bill is presented as a way to “stabilize” college athletics, but it would do the opposite by perpetuating the very instability it claims to cure through provisions that would:
- Undermine implementation and enforcement of the rules established under the House settlement, including by narrowing the disclosure and enforcement tools needed to hold every program to the same standards;
- Allow for new litigation undercutting efforts to create uniformity and consistency in rulemaking and enforcement on the national level because of inadequate antitrust protection and preemption standards too narrow to displace the current patchwork of conflicting state laws, while simultaneously creating new forms of liability through expanded private rights of action;
- Establish an expansive federal program – reaching into roster decisions, game scheduling and internal governance – to micromanage college athletics; and
- Advance private-equity interests, who stand to profit from a redistribution of media-rights revenue, by pressuring institutions to involuntarily pool media rights in a way that punishes success rather than rewarding it.
Auburn University and The University of Alabama both appreciate Congress’s attention to these challenges and share the goals of creating opportunities for and protecting student-athletes, sustaining women’s and Olympic sports and promoting fair competition through a single, clear national set of rules. But this bill does not meet that standard.
In its current form, it solves little of what genuinely challenges college athletics and leaves the central questions to the courts, inviting the very litigation it claims to prevent.
Alabama and Auburn stand ready to work with their Congressional delegation and members of both parties on a durable solution that protects student-athletes and preserves the ability of universities to compete and operate responsibly.
