SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey gripped the front of a lectern inside a ballroom at the Omni Hotel in Dallas and glanced across the room of gathered reporters, the clicking of their laptops rippling overhead.
“Many of you have written or opined about this being a unique time for college athletics; time for movement, obviously, and a time of change,” Sankey said. “We as leaders are responsible for navigating what really are, for us in college sports, uncharted waters of change.
“But the reality is there is no easy button we can just go push to resolve the issues we face. There’s no magic pill. Anytime you go through a reset, it is difficult.”
There may not be a “magic pill” for the countless issues reshaping college sports, but leaders and leagues have spent increasing time and money on lobbying efforts in the hope that Congress might provide a lifeline to the barrage of lawsuits that have buried college sports in recent years.
Sports Business Journal spoke with industry and Capitol Hill sources about the current state of play in the college sports lobbying world and efforts leading up to the presidential election.
“It’s like a bad end to a ‘Scooby-Doo’ episode,” quipped one lobbying source of the NCAA’s efforts in Washington. “[It’s like], ‘It’d all be OK if it wasn’t for these meddling kids getting paid.’”
Hearings numbering in the double digits have been held around name, image and likeness issues and the future of college sports over the past four years, leading to plenty of discussions, but little tangible legislative action, at least so far.
The Power Four leagues have spent increased time on the Hill — including in November 2023, when commissioners Tony Petitti (Big Ten), Jim Phillips (ACC), Brett Yormark (Big 12) and Sankey lobbied Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on creating a national NIL standard — while employing high-powered lobbyists to get their messages across.
Disclosures from the past three years examined by SBJ show the Power Four conferences spent an average of $1.35 million on lobbying efforts from 2021 through the second quarter of 2024. The SEC ($2.31 million) and ACC ($2.31 million) led the pack among that contingent, followed by the Big 12 ($760,000) and Big Ten ($700,000). Those efforts were spearheaded by prominent firms Marshall & Popp, Subject Matter and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, among others.
The NCAA, meanwhile, has made its own multipronged effort thanks to Dawn Buth, director of government relations, and a handful of high-powered firms, such as Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, which set a then-record for federal lobbying revenue in 2021 with $56.25 million, according to the Denver Post.
Federal disclosures show the NCAA spent $3.38 million on lobbying between 2021 and the second quarter of 2024, good for an average of $845,000 annually. Brownstein accounted for $1.53 million.
As recently as 2019, the NCAA, the power conferences and the BCS spent only $1.19 million combined.
"We are at an immense time of change, a pivotal moment,” Buth said. “And that’s reflected, I think, in how student athletes and NCAA members are caring for and starting to activate on the issue [of employment].”
What college sports entities want from their efforts largely centers on assisting with a bill that would standardize NIL rules nationwide, allow for the NCAA to have freedom to govern without fear of lawsuits and create an antitrust carve-out that ensures athletes are not classified as employees.
The proposed settlement in the House, Hubbard and Carter antitrust cases is the functional starting point. Granted preliminary approval from Judge Claudia Wilken last month, it would provide the NCAA oversight around NIL and create a formula for direct revenue sharing with athletes. Recent efforts by the NCAA, such as its post-eligibility insurance program, also check off boxes presented in previous drafts of legislation that circulated in and around Congress.
There are plenty of detractors to this plan, particularly around the employment question.
“It’s really striking what the NCAA is asking for legislatively,” said Michael LeRoy, a Univesity of Illinois professor and an expert in labor and employment law. “They’re asking to exempt up to 550,000 people who perform athletic labor from ever being an employee and from ever having any antitrust exemption. Those are two separate actions that really would amount to the largest legal marginalization of any modern-day group of people, with respect to their work.”
Myriad bills have been drafted in recent years around NIL issues, but few have made tangible progress. Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) introduced the Protecting Student Athletes’ Economic Freedom Act in July, which stated a student athlete could not be considered an employee of an institution, conference or association.
Reps. Barry Moore (R-Ala.) and Russell Fry (R-S.C.) introduced legislation in May designed to provide “a legal safe harbor for universities, conferences, and the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) to provide new benefits for student-athletes, establish and enforce rules, and comply with the law without the constant risk of litigation.”
Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) also released a discussion draft in May titled the “Fairness Accountability and Integrity in Representation of College Sports Act (FAIR College Sports Act)” designed to preempt current and future state NIL laws to create a national framework around college athlete compensation.
That said, if college sports are to find sponsors for the legislation they support and their lobbyists have pushed, it’s likely to come in the Senate.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Corey Booker (D-N.J.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) have been involved in college sports issues in recent years. Cruz, in particular, has been at the forefront of such talks, and his office is believed to have a better grasp on the finer points than most.
Washington insiders also suggest presidential nominees Kamala Harris and Donald Trump would have limited impact on future college sports legislation, given any bill seeking passage likely will need bipartisan support.
“Advocacy at both the federal and state level focused on the future of college sports — and sports-related entities in general — is very active right now, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon,” said Jesse McCollum, president of Tidal Basin Advisors, which has lobbied on behalf of The Collective Association.
The NCAA has spent the better part of two decades losing in court, from the state level to the Supreme Court. Those around the enterprise maintain optimism about congressional action — and the lobbying dollars reflect that belief.
Congress might not be the “magic pill,” but it's as close as college sports may get.
