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Key Remarks from Public Sessions
Senator Maria Cantwell, D-WA
"We think that the SAFE Act is probably the biggest down payment on student athlete rights that's been proposed to date."
"…I'm here to ask you today to help join in that effort of helping Congress come to the table and bring the interested parties together to support these concepts (in the SAFE Act): rules that give you predictability and an amendment to the Sports Broadcasting Act that gives us the revenue to preserve the ecosystem.”
Cody Campbell, Founder, Saving College Sports
"...we have this amateurish media rights marketing effort that makes absolutely no sense to anybody. The NBA…has about half as many viewers as college football does. But the NBA makes twice as much money as college football does every year…amending the SBA will add, we believe, an additional $7 billion per year to the system, which, regardless of whether you think there's waste or whatever, $7 billion solves the problem."
On reports of private equity investments in college sports through conferences or institutions: "The fact that we're bringing private equity into something that is, in my view, owned by the American public in college sports, is outlandish."
Brandon Copeland, Co-Founder & CEO, Athletes.org
"... if you don't fix the root cause of the issue, which is bringing the athletes to the table, allowing them to actually help set the rules, set the standards, set practice time, set off-season calendars, tell you when the transfer portal should be, and weigh in on those things, then you will always be limiting the earning potential of a group of human beings."
Tim Buckley, Senior Vice President on External Affairs, NCAA
"...But threats remain on the horizon...Efforts to turn student athletes into employees, efforts to just erase the academic standards that we have in place. Specifically, the rule around five years to play four seasons, which allows the next generation of high school students to move up through the system. Those things are threats that the NCAA, colleges, conferences, cannot address alone, only Congress can."
"The threat of employment would be the budget buster of the century for schools large and small. It would absolutely result in cuts to Olympic sports and women's sports."
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