Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20140710

To provide adequate resources to professionals on the ground. We must also continue pressing for comprehensive Immigration Reform so that our system will not be so overwhelmed in times like these. I yield the obama told reporters he urged perry to press texas lawmakers and the u. S. Congress to support the whitehouses funding request. The president rejected criticism saying he didnt visit the border saying quote this isnt a theater. This is a problem. The head of the ncaa is questioned about the treatment of College Athletes and the profits generated from sports. That is next. Then a look at the Russia Ukraine conflict. And later a ceremony for a former swiss diplomat who is awarded the congressional gold medal for his humanitarian efforts during world war ii. Tune in for the harlem book fair this weekend. Live coverage starts this weekend saturday morning. Mark emmert testified about College Athletes and academics and he is joined by Taylor Branch and two formal College Football players. Topics include the quality of Education Student athletes get, whether cleanly athletes should be paid, and sports safety. Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia chairs the Senate Commerce committee. Thank you for coming here. You are a bit squeezed in there. But water is on the house. Be comfortable and be glad. College sports have long held a special place at the heart of american culture. Not only have College Sports inspired deep passion in fans all across the country, but they have provided an important way for young men and women to get a College Education. For many young people, athletics have provided an avenue to college that wouldnt otherwise exist. College athletics are rooted in the notion of amateurism. Playing College Sports is supposed to be an avocation. Students play College Sports for the love of the game not love of money. Thats the ideal. But many people believe this notion of College Sports is being undermined by the power and influence of money. I remember a meeting with the top espn people and i didnt say a word because they went around in circles talking about the Business Model they had and they had the control and power that no other broadcast system would ever have and how thrilled they were and make it even stronger. And influence of money. Theres a growing perception that College Athletics particularly division i football and basketball are hardly avocations at all. What they really are is highly profitable commercial enterprises. Critics of bigtime College Athletics say that the goal of these programs is not to provide young people with a College Education, but to produce a Winning Program that reaps financial rewards for Athletic Departments and their schools. Its not about the students. Its about capturing the billions of dollars of television and marketing revenues that College Sports generate. Colleges and universities say that these revenues benefit College Athletes and their student bodies at large. But i think we have to consider whether the lure of such riches could corrupt the basic mission of Athletic Programs. Winning teams get higher payouts than losing teams which creates a strong incentives to win at any cost. And much of the money is often funneled right back into those sports programs, in the form of multiMillion Dollar coaching salaries and state of the art facilities to perpetuate that cycle of winning. I think somewhere in my reading here about 48 million of all of the 900 million that ncaa gets from their broadcasting of march madness and all of the rest a very small portion goes specifically to academics and that is hard to figure because no body has the figures. Mr. Emmert works there them. They make the decisions. He carries out what they want and i think the subject of discussion is how does he carry out and what powers do you have for carrying out what you think is a good idea. You have been president at three major universities, different places, and i would think your passion for education would show itself. Athletics are meant to serve schools and their public duty to educate students, not the other way around. Dr. Mark emmert is here to present the perspective of the colleges and universities that belong to the National Collegiate Athletic Association ncaa . Dr. Emmert, i would like to thank you for testifying here today. Youktd have you could you could have declined to do so but you didnt. So i am grateful for that. I believe you were put at the helm of the ncaa because you have impressive academic credentials and a sterling reputation. And i think we all appreciate that you are extremely well compensated. Your commendable individual qualities and capabilities are not what trouble me. I think i am just very skeptical that the ncaa can ever live up to the lofty mission that you constantly tout. It is written in printed and speeches and sponsors. The mission nothing comes before education is always there but the action is never there. I dont see how a multibillion dollar commercial enterprise can merely be an amateur pursuit. I dont see how the ncaa will ever be capable of truly making a safe, quality educational experience for students their number one priority. I want you to tell me i am wrong and i am particularly wrong about the future. But i will be a tough sell. I think we believe the ncaa has been left to its own to determine what reforms that are aleft to their own. As we continue to learn more about what goes on at some major universities and colleges, we want to know if the ncaa is seriously considering how College Athletes are faring under this system. Not just living as they do but injured as they often become, racked by poverty if they dont do well and maybe their stipens are cut off and there is an advantage of a mandated fouryear scholarship. All of these things are put on play. How are the young men who strap on their helmets on a football field in front of a hundred thousand passionate and paying customers how are they doing . How are the young men who lace up their shoes and step onto a court in front of millions of Television Viewers in march how are they benefiting from this system . Are colleges and universities living up to their end of the bargain and providing them with a quality education . Are these Young Athletes entitled to any of the billions of dollars that are reaped from their Athletic Services . And when young men and women put their bodies at risk from playing sports for their schools whether its womens lacrosse or mens soccer do they have Adequate Health insurance . I dont know and i never go into a restaurant or a barbershop without asking sometimes to their discomfort do you have Health Insurance because i know the answer is going to be no. I care about health care and i am very happy when people who work in places and dont make a lot of money dont have Health Insurance. Do the schools and athletic leagues sufficiently minimize the risk of concussions . And what happens to a student who is injured before graduation can he or she finish out his studies or does his scholarship run dry . A couple months ago, we all heard the deeply troubling comments of shabazz napier, the talented university of connecticut guard who was the most valuable player of the 2014 ncaa basketball tournament. In the midst of a tournament that generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues for the ncaa and its members, mr. Napier talked about how he sometimes did not have enough to eat during college. How did College Sports benefit mr. Napier on the nights he had to go to bed starving . You can look at that two ways. I am not trying to it into a huge problem, but i think it is a problem. The whole sense of giving students a safety net and a sense of confidence that if they dont turn out to be good running backs or point guards and dont make the team or are let off in their third year are they dropped or what happens . I dont know. The title of todays hearing is promoting the wellbeing and academic success of College Athletes. I want to have an objective, openminded, and frank discussion on this subject. The National Collegiate Athletics Association ncaa has the same stated goal as i do. As dr. Emmert is going to tell us, the ncaas mission is to protect College Athletes from abusive practices and exploitation and to promote College Sports as a means toward achieving academic excellence. Today, i want to explore whether the ncaa is fulfilling its mission. We still hear too many reports of fraudulent academics. We still hear too many tragic stories of former College Athletes who have absolutely nothing to show for the services they provided to their Schools Services that generated millions upon millions of dollars. I am going to have some tough questions for our panel. If per chance the democrats will control the Congress Next time, and no one is sure of that, thune has one idea and nelson another, but i think we want to continue this. We want to make this a continuing surge of this oversight committee. We have jurisdiction over all sports. And we have the ability to subpoena, we have the ability to we have created a special investigations unit. We are very into this subject. I personal am and i think others are. Is the ncaa and its member schools simply a legal cartel . Have College Sports become a multibillion dollar commercial enterprise which is no different than the other corporate witnesses who have appeared before this committee . Or is the ncaa truly different, and does the 100yearold organization, in fact, further the best interests of College Athletes . Are their proposed reforms enough . In my personal estimation, most of these reforms are indisputably far too long in coming. I want to thank our very distinguished panel before us today. I truly appreciate that you have agreed to appear before this committee to have a very serious and overdue public discussion on the wellbeing of College Athletes and the state of College Sports. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing to examine the current state of collegiate athletics, and i appreciate our witnesses for appearing here today. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses, including the president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association ncaa , on how the ncaa and its Member Institutions are fulfilling the commitments made to our collegiate studentathletes. I am an avid sports fan, and i know that other members of this committee are too. As a basketball player in high school and college, and the proud father of a daughter who competed at the division i level, i certainly recognize that participation in organized sports not only requires physical and mental strength, but also teaches teamwork and other skills that serve you throughout life. However, the College Studentathlete is and should be a student first. Colleges and universities must remember and prioritize their academic obligation to studentathletes. As the popularity of College Sports has grown particularly the popularity of College Football and mens and Womens Basketball so too has the profitability of many collegiate Athletic Programs. In the current environment, the stakes have been raised both for the studentathlete who wants to succeed and for the university that has a financial interest in winning games. Increasing revenues for some schools and conferences due in large part to lucrative contracts for the broadcast rights to football and basketball games have become more common. Revenues from ticket sales and merchandizing efforts, for some schools, are also significant. And, of course, alumni want to see their teams win and may be inspired to contribute to Winning Programs. As well hear today, the ncaa is a memberdriven organization whose stated mission is to integrate Intercollegiate Athletics into Higher Education so that the educational experience of the studentathlete is paramount. However, a major criticism of College Sports is that some institutions appear unable to balance the core Academic Mission of the university and the commercial considerations that often accompany College Athletics, particularly in highprofile sports. Many feel the commitment to the studentathlete is falling short. Another point of contention involves athletic scholarships, and whether the practice of offering annual, as opposed to multiyear, scholarships unfairly places studentathletes at risk of losing their scholarships as a result of poorperformance or injury. But while multiyear scholarships may benefit studentathletes, they may disadvantage smaller schools who cant match the resources of larger institutions. Clearly, collegiate athletics in america is not without controversy, and we will hear from some of the ncaas most vocal critics today. While i am sure that todays hearing will highlight a host of important issues, i hope we will not lose sight of the positive impact that amateur athletics has made on the lives of countless studentathletes. And we must remember that College Athletics is not just about football and basketball. The director of athletics at the university of south dakota usd recently shared the results of the studentathlete exit interviews he conducts annually to evaluate the schools Athletic Program from the Vantage Point of the athletes themselves. He underscored two stories that stood out from this past years athletes. The Athletic Director at usd reiterated how dustin gens, a sophomore diver at usd, recovered from openheart heart surgery to qualify to dive at the ncaa zone championships a feat that would not have been possible without the work of a dedicated training staff, academic support, coaches, team, and family. He also noted the moving story of hanna veselik, a sophomore swimmer, who leaned on friends, family, and teammates to help her through the tragic loss of her father, who passed away early in the season. With this support, hanna was able to return to the pool and achieve lifetime best times in all of her swimming events at the Summit League championships. As the usd Athletic Director puts it, these two are just a sample of what College Athletics should mean. If you strip away the money, fancy locker rooms, charter flights, and large budgets, youre left with studentathletes who often have to overcome personal, social, economic, academic, and athletic adversity. All just to compete. But they frequently do it with passion and a determination that makes us all proud. Recognizing that challenges exist, it is my hope that the ncaa, its Member Institutions, the studentathletes themselves, and other stakeholders will Seek Solutions that promote the education, health, and wellbeing of studentathletes and seek to preserve amateurism in collegiate athletics. This is an area where congress can provide a forum but the solutions are most likely to come from those most directly involved in the education and development of studentathletes. Mr. Chairman, thank you again for holding this hearing, and i look forward to hearing from our witnesses. Thank you, sir. What we are going to do now is hear the testimony. And then both senator mccaskill and senator booker, both of whom are sterling and wonderful people are going to get very angry at me because i am going to charge in the regular order and i am going to allow senator coats to ask the first question which violates all of the rules of the committee. I am mad. As the most Junior Member on the committee i must say the senate rules do not allow me to to be mad at you, mr. Chairman. I was under the impression we were on the first to arrive and ask questions in order so i arrived at 2 10 so i could be first because i didnt want to put you in a bad spot and breach the rules. You never do and you are wonderful. So you will have the first questions after the two of us. Okay. Thank you for being here and this is a wonderful opportunity to say what is is on our your heart and mind. I want to thank you and the committee for inviting me here today to share my experience and knowledge on this very important subject and very complicated subject as well. I have had many conversations with fellow students athletes on this issue about the current role of student athletes today in this giant scheme of athletics and we often walk away from the conversation with more questions than answers so i am hoping today is the first step in answering some of those questions and providing context and clarity to the subject so we can see student athletes receive maximum advocation be it a student, athlete, leader, and man or woman. I want to start with the beginning of my story. My parents are from the islands of bu the bahamas. I went to princeton and i would see statues of this guy who became my hero. This name was bill bradley. He was a rock star. College basketball, allamerican, best player at a school like princeton. Nba, hall of famer and a rod. Scholar. I had 82 offers to go play football and i decided to go to Florida State. The first thing i did when i got there was tell them i want to be a rhode scholar like my buddy and three years later i earned that. Then i went to my advisors and said i want to a pediatric nurse and now i am a second Year Medical Student hopefully able to do that. I went to strength coachers, athletic trainers and football coaches and said equip my body and get me played for the National Football league and i played for two teams. It might sound like my story is ideal. But i will say it is quite rare and unique and some people call it an anomaly because outside of cory booker the last Football Player to earn a rhode scholar was in 1970. There are few student athletes that have the same infrastructure, family support, foresight, not come from a broken School System in high school or family and was able to engage in their College Experience. Many of my teammates struggled economically because now with the scholarship stipen they received they became the main breadwinners for the family and would send some of it home. They struggled academically as well. They would go through the machine and be spent out and left asking questions with no guidance on where they should go. And sometimes left with a degree that didnt behoove any of their interest. So i hope we can shed light that we are pouring the life of the athlete on tv but i believe we are falling a bit short of edifying and improving the aspects of the student and i believe if we can do that we cannot only see our student athletes go on to be productive athletes in the professional ranks but more importantly be productive leaders and citizens that go on to be leaders of industry and men and women and have an impact as they go on. Thank you for having me and i am looking forward to enjoying this conversation. Thank you very much. Now, devon ramsay. Welcome. Good afternoon. Chairman rockefeller and members of the commit a. It is an honor and pleasure to be in your presence and share my thoughts. I was born devon ramsay on december 8th, 1988 in red bank, new jersey. My mother has valued education and sent me to a private school that covered kindergarten8th. I accelerated in the classroom and participated in athletics club. I went down the road from princeton and played against brandon. I decided to go to North Carolina chapel hill. What drew me to the school was the top reputation of the institution but the new head coach butch davis and it showed the university had an all around commitment to excellence. I have undergone five surgeries and been asked if i want to transfer or take a red shirt. But i was an offensive starter 46 years and named the top tree in my position. But most importantly i got my degree in Public Policy with a focus in business. I moved back to red bank after graduating where i would pursue my hopes of making an nfl team however i didnt make the team at tampa bay. In the summer of 2010, two teammates of mine violated rules and attended a Party Sponsored by a group. Ncaa launched an investigation and discovered several accounts of fraud. I was told to report to one of the Conference Room and brought in for questions by university officials. Before the questions began i was told the conversation was going to be recorded and asked if i would need a lawyer. I thought i was being called in to find more leads for the investigation. They began to ask me about my definition of fraud, dishonestly and plagiarism. And that is when they brought up a twoyear old discussion between the universitys tutor and asked for help with grammar in the paper and she added 4sentences in a two and a half page paper. They asked if this was the paper i turned in. I could not remember since it was two years ago. They sent me to the universitys honor court and they said there wasnt enough evidence and they had final version of the paper because it wasnt submitted electronically and most people dont keep twoyear old papers. As where was being held out an official proposed if i pled guilty after being held out for many games the ncaa would allow me to play. At this time i believed him but it was a shocking blow when i was ruled of academic fraud which tarnished my reputation. After coming to the realization they were more concerned with protecting their scholarship than protecting their own my mother and i tried to find a lawyer that had my best interest but none of them wanted to face the ncaa. Luckily a court judge reached out to my mom after reading a letter. As we went through the appeals process which was possible with the endorsement of North Carolina. They wanted me to take a plea again but the lawyer and my mom and i needed my name clear. Disregarding the testimony and the lack of evidence the ncaa overturned the ruling and reinstated by availability. Unfortunately i tore three ligaments in my knee and wasnt able to return to the field until my final game. One of the things that i wish i could have partaken in was internships. A few friends went to play at ivy league and it isnt as demanding as high Level Division one football. They were allowed to go and pursue other things during the summer and upon graduation some of my friends got great job offers. An internship teaches you lessons and provides you with skills and it is almost impossible to do so playing football. You have to be enrolled in a certain number of hour and i have seen athletes try to complete internships and most end up canceling and only one was able to complete the internship because it counted for his hours. The university of North Carolina is one of the only campuses this isnt allowed at. In fact, during a Panel Discussion about the school, the price of College Sports, head coach of the george mason Mens Basketball Team stated his team has to do an internship before they graduate. I think this is a great practice. If the ncaa wants to truly develop student athletes and prepare them for success on the field they should mandate all athletes complete an internship. The reason it needs to be mandated is because their exist a culture thatd demonizes any program that will not help. Players that go home over the summer are labelled selfish, lazy and almost a cancer to the team. But he is going home, working out and trying to improve his own value and likelihood he is not going to make the nfl. There is a void in College Athletics. They dont protect the athlete and are more concerned with signings and profits. I wasnt aware i would need to defend myself against the university and the ncaa. As a student i lacked the resources and knowledge to defend myself against an 80yearold institution. My family lacked the resources to hire a lawyer and if i refused to interview i would be held out until i testified. And the ncaa has a small window to prove opportunity. Every game you miss is a loss opportunity and a means to devalue worth. There needs to be an entity that advocates for the college athlete. I was lucky the judge reached out but it terrifies me how many students might have their reputation damaged and their scholarship removed. The ncaa is able to take advantage of young men and women and there needs to be a College Organization that will protect that individual and has no ties to the ncaa. To quote a famous poet who will watch the watchman. Thank you for the opportunity before you today. Thank you very much, mr. Ramsay, appreciate it a lot. Mr. Taylor branch is an author and from baltimore and written what i call one of the five best books every written in terms of my own reading preferences about the Civil Rights Movement and the development of it and he is an ex pert on this subject and written extensively. We welcome you. Thank you, senator rockefeller, senator thune, members of the committees, guest, sports fans and educators. I am honored to be here. The subject of your hearing is College Sports and the wellbeing of College Athletes is full of mind fields and myths. I hope to offer some summary comments for possible discussion under three headings. Amateurism, balance and equity. Amateurism is identified as the bedrock principles of College Athletics. Student athletes shall be amateurs in a college support and their participation should be motivated by education and the physical and social and mental benefits to be derived. Student participation is an avocation and students athletes should be protected by exployitation by commercial enterprises. That is by line 289. The word amateur reports conflicted attitude about youth. It opened a flexibility in public habits allowing the United States to become the only nation to develop commercialized sports at major institutes of learning. Even the universities found ignore or excuse the contradictions of a multibillion side industry built on under graduate students. Confusion begins with the word itself. The description range to a dabbler or rookie. Webster says the people running that company are a bunch of amateurs. The same word expresses praise and scorn as well. This gains reinforcement in the uniquely designed world of sports where fans are encouraged to boo and cheer out thinking. The athletes of the olympics completed for huge prizes. And modern scholars have confirmed evidence of high steak victory and loss. Ancient amateurism is a myth. Purist who mixed money and sports were all that existed in the world. Golf legend bobby jones is listed as the model amateur and gentlemen who declined every championship prize he earned. Hes reputation fits the true definition of amateur which is derived from the latin word lover and specializing in one who choses a skill out of devotion rather than the hope financial gain. Significantly students themselves call themselves amateurs when they invented College Sports after the civil war. Until then they gained control of schedule, ticket sales and recruited alumni to build the field at harvard with no funds from the school. The ncaa created in 1906 slowly transformed the amateur tradition inherited from College Athletes. Its board declared a call of faculty control as late as 1922 and the weak organization couldnt high their first fulltime staff member until 1951. After that revenue from contract on televisions allowed them to enforce rules as a requirement rather than a choice. This was problematic because attempts to regulate motivation and belief run afoul of the constitution. Ncaa rules contradict the key requirement that College Sports must be an avocation or calling which comes from the word calling to voice by denying a athletes an essential voice. Ncaa rules govern the players and exclude them from membership and consent. Checks and balances are required for sound governance and the ncaa structure is unbalanced in four basic respects. First they suffer a conflict of interest between alleged violations in football as opposed to football because it lost revenue from football and is almost depended on the march madness basketball tournament. Second the ncaa structure creates a false impression of common practice between the few schools that commercialize College Athletics and the vast majority of schools with small crowds and little sports revenue. The amateurism stretches from the Division Three Cross Country race to notre dame football on espn. And third, ncaa officials obscure differences between academic sports with the mission on campus. In the classroom they transfer expertise to students but this is reversed in big time sports. There athletes deliver highly valuble expertise to the school. College athletes are or should be students in the classroom and competitors players in the Athletic Department. They face multiple roles in careers like Many Americans but their conflicting demands cant be managed or balanced unless they are recognized. The ncaa undermines this logical separation by insisting sports are a supplement in the jurisdiction called the student athletes. They offload the academic responsibility to the ncaa. Forth, the ncaa and member schools strip rights from athletes uniquely as a class. No college tries to ban work for all students and no legislator could or would write laws to take the earnings from a targeted group in a legit enter prise. On the contrary there is work study and students exercise freedom to market skills from bookstore jobs and pizza delivery to the launch of facebook unless they are athletes. For College Athletes alone the ncaa brands such industry unethical. Equity basic rights and freedom. No freedom should be abridged because of athletic status. I am not a lawyer or professional economist i find ample evidence that experts object to this inclusion in the structure. In macro economics the ncaa is featured as an economic cartel that reaps profits. The courts have agreed in two land mark cases ncaa versus the board of oklahoma in 1984 the Supreme Court struck down the elusive control of College Football broadcast and overnight the major football schools won the freedom to sell every broadcast without sharing proceeds through the smaller schools. We eat what we kill bragged one official at the university of texas. The ncaa 1998, assistant coaches won a 54 million settlement along with an order vacating the salary and salaries have chi sky rocketed even with nonrevenue. By 2010 the university of florida played their volleyball coach 369,000. There is a distorted Cartel Market place that is shackling only the most valuable talent the players. To reduce bargain ping power th ncaa creates rules regarding eligibility and the terms of compensation. Ncaa Officials Say the system is devoted to the welfare and benefit of the College Athletes. Football will never be placed ahead of nurturing and protecting and educating young people. Ncaa president emmert vowed such when he took over. This must be reconciled from the behavior they display. These rules can turn words on their head like ally alison wonderland. It aims to safe guard them from getting paid too much or at all rather than too little in the word of exploit. To use selfishly for one ends as an employers who exploit their workers. In closing, i would suggest one hopefully precedent from the past work of your committee. This isnt the first time that the governance of amateur sport and the College Athletes have presented a daunting tangle of interest. 50 years ago a bananza let go with the aau that controlled access to the olympic games. Aau leaders accused the ncaa of sabotaging the u. S. Chances to win medals claiming that College Athletes were already paid and therefore not amateurs at all since the ncaa approved athletic scholarships in 1956. Ncaa officials said the coaches were parasites on College Training facilities. They disqualified each other until president kennedy made a mediator of douglas mcarthur. He recommended proposals that were brought to this committee. Your predecessors shaped the act of 1978. And the athletes get a 20 chair of the voting seats on the olympic committees. Though small this reputation transformed the athletes voice. They tipped the balance on the governing committees around the United States and around the globe. Marathon races and tennis tournaments recommended the ability to get money and keep the olympic statue. They came to welcome competitors in over sport except boxing. When they took away the word of amateur most people didnt notice the change. Some of you helped recognize success in the revised ted stevens olympic and amateur sports act of 1998. This example is a good place to start. Wherever possible make athletes true citizens rather than glorified vessels in College Sports. Where markets extend into the College Sports make them fair and competitive and recognize the rights and uphold the rights of College Athletes. Give them a voice and challenge universities in turn to make wise, straightforwa forward decisions. I want to be critical of myself because the rule is witnesses speak for 56 minutes but i failed to make it clear. It says five minutes here but i wasnt watching. Sorry. Keep it to 57 minutes that would be the best. And i thank you for your testimony. It was my fault. Mr. Bradshaw, former executive director at temple university, we welcome you. Chairman, rockefeller, senator thune and members of committee thank you. It is an honor for me to represent the 1600 plus institutions and 11,000 plus individual members of nafta and the athletic administrators who represent in access of 500 student athletes across the division and the nia and the Junior Community colleges. We serve as the professional association for those in the field of college administrations. It provides Educational Opportunities and serves as a vehicle for networking the exchange of information and advocating on behalf of the organization. I was positions as assistant and head baseball coach, director of alumni and 36 years as a division one Athletic Director at three years university. I have two years as a College Student and two years as a professional baseball player where two broken ankles influenced a Career Change and a masters degree. I trust my ankles are safe today. I was a director at three universities and retiring from this wonderful profession one year ago. During the five decades of my career i have seen significant improvements in the commitment by universities to the academic, athletic and student athletes. Coaching, training, athletic facilitys to the much improved safety requirements and emerging ncaa benefits, our student athletes have never had had better. And yet we know we can do better. We as educators are committed to maximizing and developing the academic and athletic potential that our players bring. It is important to examine the universitys performances in trends in health safety, life skills, academics and economics. Academics Graduation Rate by any metric have improved over the last 20 years. In 2013 the graduation success rate in division one was 82 and 71 for division one and 73 for mens basketball student athletes. Among the reasons for this improvement is increased ncaa requirements for initial eligibility and continued eligibility and universitys proactive response to the Academic Progress Rate metric instituted by the ncaa to measure individual teams classroom performance. Health and safety while the university strives to use best practices we can never do too much to protect. The identifying of con suggestion concussions remain the biggest concern. Hiring nutritionist, and discussing date rape, gambling and other issues and drug testing and followup. Financial security the real cost of attending college has increas increased above inflation proving massive debt when long beaching or too expensive to attend. 2. 1 billion is given in scholarships and this will continue to anticipate as the real cost of education is being covered and the room and board and books and fees. In addition to the scholarship, a College Graduate earns one million oversight and investigations a life time than a nongraduate. They get university Health Insurance, multi year athletic grants and student Assistance Funds available through offices. The vastly improved conditions have resulted in the unprecedented performance in the classrooms, on the Playing Field and in preparation for life. Few other campus activities or clubs produce such natural diversity as College Athletics. Bringing together young men and women from all different backgrounds with the common thing being skills. Less than 1 of Division One Athletes will participate in professional sports. This underscores the value of education and many of them couldnt afford it without the scholarship. The students are the center of our universe and at the center of ever decision. If we ask our severals about building facilities and hiring coaches if this is in the best interest of the student athletes i believe that answer helps leads us in the right direction. Any cravof your questions are m welcome. Now dr. Richard southall who is a director of the College Sports institute. Welcome. Chairman rockefeller, senator thune, and Committee Members thank you for allowing me to talk. My initial draft was only 35 minutes so thank you for giving me the advice. As director of the college of Sports Institute at the university of North Carolina my comments are not off the cuff but informed by organizational theories and studies and drawn from ncaa documents and reflect my work but that of numerous colleagues and scholars. Well i will aware there is sociodemographic differences my testimony will focus on how within bigtime College Sports ncaa members have sought to protect their business interest at the expense and wellbeing academic success and profits of athletes. For several decades the ncaa was aware as the scale of spending continued to grow there was a general sense that bigtime athletics is in conflict with amateurs and scrutiny is likely if Graduation Rates dont improve. In 2003, the ncaa embarked on a twoface rebranding schedule. First the ncaa created a term of art. The College Model of athletics as a definition of amateurism that isolated the way in which College Athletes are viewed without increasing the revenue. Division one revenue have more than doubled since 2003. Internal ncaa documents reveal protecting the model of college is the primary focus of the ncaa president. In an effort to maintain the perception of a clear line of demarcation of College Sport and offer support for the effectiveness of the new Academic Progress Program the ncaa developed the progress rate and graderation success rate. Gsr. 03, the ncaa has consistently sought to utilize these rates as proof that bigtime College Sport has one clear focus education. However, several items are noteworthy. One, neither the federal Graduation Rate, fgr, mandated by congress, nor the ncaas gfr, is perfect or inherently a more accurate metric. They utilize different sampling and Statistical Analysis to exam different cohort. In short, theyre different Graduation Rates. Two, the gsr gsr consistently returns array 12 to 25 higher than esgr. As far back as 1991 the ncaa new that removing eligible eligible eligible dropouts are the worst transfers of athletes would leave school in good academic standards in the js or covert would result in markedly higher success rates. Three, since there is no comparable National Level gsr for the general student body trip or gsr and sgr data simultaneously in press releases or dataset tables invite inappropriate comparisons and fosters confusion among the general public. While the Ncaa National offices sought to protect these collegiate models academic support staffs to often depend on an amorphous special talented Mission Admission process focuses on maintaining eligibility and results in athletes often clustering were being steered to majors conducive to their practice and competition or in other words work schedules. Several authorities within the ncaa and University Government structures recognize clustering and scheduling is a problem. In addition country to the ncaa public posturing that they are just normal students profit athletes take an important respect to be physically, culturally and socially isolated from the campus community. They live in a tightly controlled parallel universe indicative of coughlins total institution. The study dump drumbeat of sophisticated subtle propaganda the ncaa has sought spontaneous consent to mythology that bigtime College Sports enhances the educational experience of quote unquote student athletes. Propaganda is effective because it exploits peoples reluctance to intellectually engaged with an oppositional alternative views. Since 2003, while the ncaa has successfully guided its collegiate model of athletics including the graduation success rate into the publics consciousness there has been little progress in ensuring profit athletes have equal access to Educational Opportunities afforded other students. In conclusion there is clear evidence of the ncaa collegiate model of athletics not only systematically inhibits access to a worldclass University Education but also exploits profit athletes by denying them basic bargaining rights, due process and standard forms of compensation. I want to thank the good name members for the opportunity to visit with you today. Thank you for your excellent testimony and finally dr. Mark emmert, you all know who he is. Thank you senator. Good afternoon to you and to senator thune. Is your microphone on . Thank you. Can you hear me find . I notice no difference. [laughter] is a recovering University Press and i have learned to protect so thank you very much. And good afternoon to all of you on the panel. Im mark emmert i service the present of the ncaa since october 2010 following 30 years as a Professor University administrator and University President. I certainly appreciate the opportunity to appear before looking today and discuss what i agree are very important issues and i particularly want to thank you mr. Chairman for working with us on the timeliness of this hearing. Its good that we are able to be here. The ncaa core purpose as its been comported out is to promote the wellbeing and success of more than and 60,000 student athletes as they enjoy both worldclass athletic experiences and receive access to topnotch education. Thats why ive been working diligently with division i board of directors on universities in the stakeholders to drive policy changes that support student athletes success and indeed address many of asias veteran racer today. During my tenure we have enacted more than a dozen new reforms. Two notable examples are raising academic standards and having the opportunity for multiple year scholarships. As we discuss how to improve College Sports today its important to understand the ncaa is a democratically governed Membership Association of nearly 1100 colleges and universities. As such neither i nor any member of my staff have a boat on this is policy. Its important to note appropriate in my opinion versus persons themselves i feel that decisionmakers within the association. Members make rules to represent a process much as you do in congress. It is challenging obviously to bring together coaches athletic immense respect remember student athletes and University President s to achieve consensus on much of anything let alone College Sports and while the pace of change is not what i or many others would like the division i member schools are working very diligently even as we speak to create a new decisionmaking structure that will yield practical and i hope timely results on all of these issues. Before we discuss the challenges at hand let me be clear. College sports in my opinion works extremely well for the vast majority of our 460,000 student athletes and while it can and should be modified the collegiate model shouldnt that be preserved because of all the good it provides for so many. I agree theyre important changes that need to be made. Let me describe the most important ones. First student athletes in my opinion should be given a scholarship for life so they may complete bachelors degree even if their education is delayed for any reason unrelated to a lack of academic progress for serious misconduct. Second scholarships to cover the full and actual cost now simply tuition for the school it applies. Third ncaa schools must always lead in the area of health and safety. For example the ncaa long with a variety of medical experts released a recently new guidelines that address the diagnoses the management and prevention of sports related concussions. Fourth, the ncaa must work assertively with all of our universities on Sexual Assault prevention and support for victims. This is a National Crisis and we can all do better. Fifth, while all student athletes today are covered by insurance for injuries and the ncaa covers catastrophic injuries in the gaps in coverage must be closed. Sixth, the academic success of student athletes must remain our ultimate priority. This means providing them with a them with the time as well as the resources they need to take a damage of the Opportunities College campuses as are two former athletes have testified. Finally all changes that are made, decent others must maintain a support for title ix and cannot come at the cost of the student athletes womens annan revenuegenerating sports. The ncaa provides countless opportunities to men and women including many from lowincome families who would not otherwise attend college. In fact some 82,000 kurd and student athletes from our firstgeneration College Students and at the risk of correcting mr. Bradshaw now 2. 7 million in athletic scholarships provided to students that make that a reality. Further ncaa revenues are reinvested in our mission. Specifically last years revenue allowed us to conduct 89 National Championships in 23 different sports for nearly 50,000 student athletes participating in those championships from across the entire country. Those revenues allowed us to provide 700 million directly to colleges and universities in all three divisions, 100 million of which was used to cover extra expenses and emergency expenses for division i studentathletes. Further those revenues allowed us to cover 14 Million Dollar insurance premiums for catastrophic insurance policies for a student athletes. College sports are serving studentathletes very well for the most part. If their changes to both policy and a culture that are needed and that require frank conversations like the one we are having here in serious action. Im committed to working with you and their member schools to ensure that student athletes have all of the opportunities for success that they deserve and i want to thank you for the invitation mr. Chairman to appear today and i look forward to taking your questions and working within the future. Thank you very much mr. Emmert. I will start and senator thune will follow them senator coats. According to your web site, and im just going back to some basic stuff, studentathletes health, safety and wellbeing remain our top priorities. Yet in current papers filed with the lawsuit in which a family sued the ncaa after their son died from a brain injury suffered in a preseason football practice, the ncaa asserted that quote the ncaa denies it has a legal duty to protect studentathletes. I find that extraordinary. I know what youre just going to be and thats going to upset me but the question is how do you reconcile your web sites publicly stated priority of providing health and safety within the private legal arguments which you will declare somehow are different that the ncaa doesnt have a legal duty to protect studentathletes. Either you do or you dont. I will not quibble about the language. I think i was at the very least a terrible choice of words. Created by Legal Counsel to make a legal argument. Im not a lawyer and im not going to defend or deny what a lawyer wrote in a lawsuit. I while unequivocally state we have a clear moral obligation to make sure that we do everything we can to support the student athlete. When i perceive a web of convenient protection to all parties. You suggested that there are a number of universities not what i really want to see as i have a panel of subpoenaed University President s from landgrant publicly funded universities up here and i think it will come to that. I think its going to happen. I dont how it know how workout without it but you say that was bad language by a lawyer who got confused or didnt have a good nights rest or whatever it was. So you sort of slosh over that. Earlier you said that there arent number of universities that want to make a certain number of changes which you have enumerated three or four of th them. But then you have also said frequently and answers to questions at that another forum that you dont have the authority to do anything. You dont have a vote. Everything is in the hands of the universities. My cynical self says that universities like things exactly the way they are because in fact theyre making so much more money than they ever have befo before. Not all that psalm. There is about 120 that make most of it, 120 universities. I dont know how change is possible. How do you make the case for saying that you can be a participant in this process of bringing about change when you say that they dont have to listen to anything you say . I can tell you senator what is going on right now. In less than a month now the division i board will completely change the decisionmaking structure that will put all of the subjects that worry are describing and discussing here today in the hands of the 65 universities that have the largest revenue. The schools that are within the five areas. Im sorry i have tender. Why do 65 schools that make the most money because to me they would be the one that would be least likely to want to make the changes at all. They are precise and wants to want to make changes often change their price tags associated with them and they are often blocked from doing so by institutions that have less revenue. So if for example we want to move towards a scholarship model school attendance. Something the division i board of my first year on the job twice passed and was overridden by the membership of the 350 schools in division i predominately with the support of the 65 major schools saying this is something we really need and they were blocked from doing so by the other institutions. Those schools are indeed those schools whose interests are the points are just enumerated. Indeed i was quoting from a letter filed the presence of pac12. All of them said these are the changes we must make and we need to make those kinds of changes. Its a 65 largest universities are also the smaller ones . Yeah these are the 65 schools that are members of the five largest revenue conferences. The sec, the big 12, the big 10, the pac12 and the acc. Would you agree with me in my final firstround question that College Sports has long forgotten the word amateurism and im talking about particularly about the 120 major but you know theres a lot more than that, that its just a business and the more money you can make at West Virginia university signed on to the big 12, which guarantees one thing and one thing only and that means most of the people at West Virginia that are not high income or even moderate income cannot go to any games out in the southwest. But Western University sure makes a ton of money from it. How do you respond to that . Is that right . Is that fair . Yeah if i may senator there are two questions that are being asked there. The first is do i believe the 120 or so dominant schools perhaps to whom you are referring have abandoned the concept of amateurism and i would say no, they have not. I certainly agree with you that the topline revenue, the expenditures that are going on right now in College Athletics have unequivocally moved up sharply in the last two decades. The fact that schools are investing those dollars back into Athletic Program makes it quite clear that the universities themselves are not doing this to quote turn a profit. Indeed buster out of 1100 schools about 23 and all of america had positive cash flow. In other words invest in all of the money they had in College Sports and had some left over. Everyone else in the country put resources into College Sports instead of taking them out. In terms of the changes that occurred in the construction of the conferences over the past 10 or 12 years i probably agree with you. I was very disappointed in the changes that the conferences sought to make progress and. They created some significant travel challenges i believe not just for the fans but also for student athletes. When you have to go across the country for a Football Game is one thing because that only occurs occasionally. Winter Volleyball Team come your Basketball Team or your soccer team is made studentathletes are traveling a great deal at great expense both in time and energy and commitment. I was quite disappointed in not all that many of the changes that occurred. I thank you and i turned to Ranking Member thune. Thank you mr. Chairman. Mr. Emmert you have taken issue to warm some of the subcommittees to address needed changes. First of all as i mentioned within a month we will see i hope the board passed a new structure because of the challenges of the past 24 months of making decisions around a very aggressive reform agenda. The leadership of the 65 leading universities have said we simply have to find a better way to make progress. They have identified as their agenda many of the items that i just addressed and a handful of others. So there is a very keen interest in finding first of all ways to provide greater support for student athletes. We passed twice over the past 36 months a proposal to allow universities to give studentathletes is a bare minimum an additional 2000 in a scholarship to cover all miscellaneous expenses. I believe that the universities this fall and no later than january will approve a proposal to do something just like that yet again and i hope an even more robust want to cover the cost of being a student athlete. We were able to pass changes that allowed but didnt require multiyear scholarships for student athletes. Prior to three years ago the universities were literally for bin by ncaa rules about providing multiyear scholarships. We were able to get a change in the rules to allow and i think we are well on their way toward a mandate in multiple year commitment so studentathletes on so studentathletes dont have to worry about whether not they will be able to finish their degree on time. I think that is extremely likely to happen and as i mentioned also theres a very strong interest in the same group of leading universities to cover the cost, fully the cost of insurance programs. The vast majority of universities cover those costs are they there shouldnt be a question. Should be quite clear that no student athlete will have to cover costs of insurance or injuries that are in for good on they are studentathletes. I think finally we have got to address this issue of time. The demands placed on studentathletes right now are in my eyes and i think in the eyes of many including i suspect mr. Bradshaw, the demands that are being placed on young men and women both in terms of whats required of them for regular coaching and whats required of them for informal coaching and required simply to become competitive these days is far too great a time demand and we need to find ways and i completely agree with mr. Ramsay for example need to find ways that young men and women can take advantage of internships and study abroad opportunities. Of all the things we know that helped prepare them for life because a tiny fraction of them are ever going to play professional sports. Virtually all College Players their last game is virtually their last game of college and thats not going to be their professional life in their life in general is going to be changed by having a meaningful degree and meaningful experiences that go along with that. We need to create opportunities for them to do many things available on campus. Bradshaw as a Member Institution taking care of the wellbeing of the studentathletes and im told it would sure practice to conduct exit interviews and im wondering, sometimes those led to substantial changes in policy and Health Programs to be improved. You have examples from those interviews that you can share with us that will track improvements in the way that temple address student athletes . We gathered information from studentathletes about how they were being treated. As many of you by no student athletes are not the most shy people in the world. Theyre like my teenagers, they let you know what they are hungry and the many things. Seniors were leaving the institution and to followup on questionnaires we sent the seniors a month before they left and then we went over those questionnaires with the studentathletes to talk about every facet of their experience at the university. That was helpful. We also had a Captains Council which was an aggregate of all the captains from every team that got together without the coaches, just myself and some administrators to hear everything they had to say about their experiences so that we could use that in recruiting and help to do a lot better job. We also have Team Meetings with each of the teams before the seasons to welcome the freshmen together and put from us freshmen about it. We were able to gather very valuable things. We had one team who their practice facility was maybe about 25 minutes from campus. When i got back in the evening they werent able to get the kind of quality dinner because a lot of the students had been in there and things were picked over. We were able to extend that time for their meals for an hour so the studentathletes could eat and we also had Football Players that were practicing in the afternoon some of them in premed at some of the courses they were taking were right up against their practice. We were able to get that football coach to take those practices in the morning and 97 of classes they were taking. Those were very valuable that was valuable and put right from the student athletes. My time has expired mr. Chairman but from Athletic Director standpoint what will you see the a ds in universities doing. Some of these things you can go above and beyond what the ncaa requires that is a lot of flexibility that allows members additions to make decisions that are in the passengers of their studentathletes. And we should. We have the responsibility. Not only the chairman of the board of trustees that the Athletic Director should all be on board to have similar philosophies and missions and principles about how that works. In concert with all those people because sometimes you need funds to do the things you need to do and get the support from the board and the president. Its very important at all of us worked together to do that because we are out recruiting other studentathletes and thats a brand. We call athletics the front porch of the university. That might not be the most important thing you see when you drive by but its the most visible messenger of the brand of the university. Thank you senator thune. Senators coats. Thank you for testifying today know you didnt have to do this but its very constructive. The reforms that you have initiated and those that you hope to initiate it sounds like theyre somehow positive things are happening relative to the issues as you have that knowledge are challenges for the ncaa and the challenges for the universities and challenges for our committee. Mr. Chairman i want to thank you for following through on your commitment to me and to others that we are going to have a good solid nontheatrical investigation and Committee Process here because i think we are all in on the same page in terms of how can we best reserve the student athlete, best provide for them wax how do we address some of the challenges we are facing today with revenues and sore throat so forth and i think this is a very constructive effort that we are undertaking here and i thank you for it. For pulling all that together. Here is what im hearing and leading to a question here but im hearing from our witnesses that there are many positive things happening and many positive results coming from being a student athlete. Opportunities that are available to athletes that otherwise would not have been able to get a College Experience or College Degree or an education process. The list over forms that dr. Emmert said these are his proposals and i think it goes right to what we are trying to accomplish here. Scholarship for life, the full fall in actual cost of attendance payment, leading and taking the lead in areas of health and safety, dressing the Sexual Assault issue which goes across all aspects of athletics but also College Experience. Its not limited to just one. Medical insurance, hearing those questions. Academic priorities and we have talked about the time issue. Support for title ix. Its been remarkable what has happened under title ix in terms of the number of women that are able to participate in athletics and gain scholarships. Many of those also would not perhaps it had a chance without scholarship help and support. The vast majority of schools whether division ii or division iii or in the top 65 that offer all these opportunities, its something we want to preserve and its something we want to improve. I think we have a president of the ncaa who is a reformer. That is why he was hired. He has taken steps already and is willing to take significant steps forward. Obviously it goes to the question dr. Emmert up a 65. I was in courage by your response to the chairmans question relative to their interests in addressing these issues. Now, its one thing to say that they are willing to do it and its another thing to do it so we wish you success but we understand that you are the proposal. You are the initiator but they are the decisionmakers. So i hope mr. Chairman over some period of time hopefully relatively soon we can give them a positive result from that effort because i think thats really where these major issues fall. Dr. Emmert would you just give us one more shot at the ability to address what i think goes to the root of the problem but also to the root of the solution and that is the top 65 which are their revenue generators. What we dont want to jeopardize or the other 1000 or so that arent ample at them in a situation where they wont be able to fulfill title ix or wont be able to fulfill the level of sports that gives some young people opportunities to participate in getting a College Education at the same time. S. Mr. Chairman and senators coats i think you are asking two of the most important questions. The first is a recognition that 100 or so years ago when the ncaa was created as mr. Branch pointed out it was created with some impetus from the white house and congress because of all the challenges in College Sports. At that time it was determined that College Sports should be selfgoverned, that the universities themselves were capable of providing the right kind of structure and governan governance, oversight to make College Sports work effectively for young men and young women and we are at a point now where we are going to see yet again whether or not theyll selfgovernance system works. I have confidence because i know most of these president s as colleagues and i know their interests and their considerations and concerns. That provides me with the confidence that they want to move forward on the agendas that i have described plus more in the coming weeks and months. Now, i think mr. Chairman this hearing is a useful cattle prod if you will to make sure that everyone understands that the world is watching. The u. S. Senate is watching and everyone is paying attention to what universities are going to do to address these very real and significant issues. I think all of those things combined give me some very positive belief that we are going to wind up in the right place in a matter of months. Now if we are not then we have another conversation we can have im sure and i have no doubt senator that you or your successors will make sure we have that conversation. I have no concerns about the spotty or any other trying to hold the universities accountable for the things they need to do and should be doing. Mr. Chairman my time has expired. Chairman coats just had his tenth grandchild. And i heard he cried. We love that. Clyde didnt hear that. A guy who cries over his grandchild is wonderful. Its another form of cartel. Senator heller. Thank you mr. Chairman and i hope it doesnt get you in trouble but i have a couple of things for the record. First id like to submit an opening statement. So ordered and also for the record as a usc alum who spoke with pat haden just before this hearing. Im pretty sure that we usually watch the trojans beat on espn area having said that to you dr. Emmert i have a couple of questions. Points you brought up that think our what you are trying to achieve. I think there are more weaknesses today than our strength. If you have to talk about students having scholarships for life i think thats a weakness. If you have to talk about men and women that have fallen that cruel coverage of their cause while theyre in college is a weakness because of something you dont have today. If you are talking about in the leading in the area of safety you are not doing it today. If the ncaa is talking about taking the lead in Sexual Assault and they are not doing it today. If you talk about gas and Insurance Coverage that means its not happening today. We can go on and on. Imagine the time demands on these men and women in school means its not happening today. I will share with you every once in a while the chairman and i agree on something and i call that lightning in a bottle. Maybe its maybe the stars are aligning. Im not sure on this one but needless to say i agree with them and that is that we have jurisdiction in this congress. My question to you is this. If tomorrow there was a bill and from the United States senate that would disband the ncaa and for all the discussions and hearings and witnesses that spoke today give me reasons why i shouldnt vote for that bill. Im happy to. The fact is first of all we have been focused already in this brief period of time on the things that are happening but the reality also is that in a norm is not a very good things are happening that we havent talked about. I want to hear those. When we focus on issues of College Sports the vast majority as many of you have noted, the vast majority of those issues are really focused on mens basketball and football as its played in the top handful of institutions. If you look at bcs football and mens basketball if you are looking at 5 of Intercollegiate Athletics you are missing 95 of the collegiate athletics. For that other 95 there are very few of those challenges or problems that are occurring. Indeed im not very good at math in my head that if its 95 of 460,000 students would save 450,000 or 425,000 students for whom this is working amazingly well. They are graduating at a higher rate than the rest of the student body on their campuses. They are graduating at a higher rate than the rest of the students in the United States. Yes we can in fact have a very good learned discussion about how we missed Graduation Rates but if you use the federal Graduation Rates student athletes graduated 1 higher than nonathletes on all of our campuses across america. If you look at mens and Womens Basketball, if you look at football Graduation Rates as mr. Bradshaw pointed out have been steadily growing for more than 15 years now each and every year. If you look at africanamerican men on any given campus have a 9 higher probability of graduating if they have to be happen to be an athlete that if they are not. Student athletes make very good students. Yes there are many issues and as the two former athletes have pointed them out nicely the need to be addressed but for the vast majority students being an athlete also goes along with being a better student and more likely to graduate and also we believe though that date is not well done and we heard from dr dr. Southall that hes doing a study that will be useful we believe theres good reason to see they are more successful in life as well overall. So one of the things that we all need to work on together is to make sure we dont throw the baby out with the bathwater here. Youre collegiate athletics as you pointed out mr. Rockefeller is a wonderful part of our society provides extraordinary opportunities for the vast majority of student athletes. I focus my comments on the things that i would like to see fixed. You just elaborated on them. That should not be interpreted as everything is wrong in College Sports. Indeed even if you look at scholarships in fact no one is given that guaranteed, no schools are giving for your guaranteed commitments. A handful of others are looking at right now but the reality is almost no student ever loses their scholarship. Wasnt that prohibited by the ncaa . It was. Wanted a change . Thats one of the things i think that will occur. In other words the schools did until the ncaa prohibited. They did and i have no idea why that was put into the rules. I have my own notions but i dont even know when that occurred. 1973. Any reason as to why . You really dont know . Recruiting is not a good idea not to give multiyear scholarships. The historical record on that was that was driven by the coaches at the biggest universities precisely the 65 biggest schools because they wanted more control over their athletes. They were driven to win. If a better better chance of winning if you control a athlete and what time he gets up and how much time he spends in the weight room and so on and support than if he can their scholarship and you have more control over them. You cant do that anymore, right . Guess you can. The ncaa in 1973 the best of the big School Athletic department and coaches put in a rule that you could not offer more than a oneyear scholarship in other words guaranteeing the coaches that control over the athletes and thats for four years. What theyre trying to do is repeal that law so you could have the option of offering more. Is one of the first things i insisted on. But it lasted for four years and it has the same 65 schools that are now proposing to do these reforms that you are talking about and i think they are good but its because they can afford them and because the gap between the level of money involved and the needs of these athletes has gotten so it seemed that they want to do it on their own. At senator heller would allow me because its such an important point. It has not changed. A student athlete right now who are the reasons of coach at any time can revoke that scholarship so that student is no longer able to stay at the university. Dr. Emmert thats true right now right . Thats variable. We have been doing so since it was lifted. I dont know the extent to which. But its not uniform. Its not even a majority of schools. Your turn will come. Do we need to remind him that he is a junior on this committee . I think somehow he forgot that. Senator mccaskill. I would like to offer the wreck of the world call it the institutions who voted to reestablish the oneyear rule after was voted in 2011 that you could have the option of getting a fouryear scholarship. The very next meeting there was an attempt to overrule that decision or they needed a twothirds vote to overrule the decision to go back to the oneyear requirement. I think it would be very interesting for the members of this committee to look at the institutions that voted to go back to a oneyear requirement in 2012 grade they need not they need 62. 5 . They got 62. 12 to go back to the oneyear. I think youll be surprised. Its counterintuitive some of the institutions that voted to go back to the one you like harvard voted to go back to one year. Galeb was strong. They abstained. We at institutions like texas all wanted to go back to one year but then there were smaller schools that want to go back to one year. When Missouri School tip at the university of missouri did not. And i was willing to put this in the record and i was nervous when i got this because i was afraid that my university might have voted to go back to one year but its very telling that in 2012 and i guess my question to you dr. Emmert is why wasnt this made public at the time . I think most of these universities would be embarrassed if they were publicly called out that they were unwilling to give a fouryear scholarship to an athlete. Why did it take a request from congress for this roll call for this to reach the light of day and i would ask that this list be made part of the public record. The data were made available to all the memberships. Im talking about to the public. Why didnt you put on the web site . I am not debating the facts. I just dont simply no weather was not put on the web site. The debate was very public. It was obviously a very disputed case. Its a very interesting debate. I was quite stunned by some of the argumentation. We have one of the things i didnt mention about changes that i anticipate in the coming weeks. Mr. Branch pointed out something that is part of the Olympic Movement and olympic tradition in the United States that student athletes have have to olympic athletes have to have a substantial vote and voice in all of the two versions of a want the bodies. I certainly abdicate for a model much like that and indeed the proposal thats going to be voted on later in august will include full representation of students as voting members alongside president s and Athletic Directors on all of the legislative bodies. But we currently have student athlete advisory committees that we turn to. Thats all great. If i might maam the Student Advisory Committee advised against putting in multiyear scholarships because they happen to agree with coaches that it was a good incentive for their colleagues to remain engaged. So some universities voted to overturn this because their very own Student Advisory Committee said no, no dont get the multiyear scholarships. We like when youre scholarships so my point is simply maam it was counterintuitive at many levels. Fair enough. I would like to talk to the students because i think they probably felt pressured from coaches that they were all student athletes. I would like to handle accusations. One of the responses to when the letters i sent you indicated you provided an on line title mind legal and best practices material and video class. My question is in that material do you make the recommendation to your institutions that they not be allowed to handle the adjudication of title ix complaints involving Sexual Assaults against an athletes . I dont know the answer to that. We have done a survey in the results came out today and i was shocked to find out 30 of the division one, two and preschools allow their Athletic Departments to handle the allegations against their athletes. Now we have a big problem with victims being willing to come forward. I assume you have read the long cover story about the investigation that did not occur with mr. Winston at Florida State, that there was no investigation of that allocation. You will never know whether hes guilty or not because no one ever investigated because of who he was. If you are a victim and you know your allegation is going to be handled by the Athletic Department as opposed to any other student on campus do is handled in a different system why in the world would you think the process was going to the fair . I read your data this morning and i was those that sounds like equally surprised and dismayed by that fact. I think the concern you are raising is spot on. I think it creates first of all an enormous amount of conflict of interest. I think it creates the kind of enormous apprehension you are describing right now on the part of the victim as somebody who has spent most of his life on campus and several jobs had responsibilities for campus safety. Whenever i was the present i had to deal with victims and family members of victims and people who had suffered egregious harm and i always found it the most difficult problem that i had have ever wrestled with. I think this is something that needs to be addressed and i think the data is shining a very important light on the phenomenon that i think most of the members who are going to be very surprised know exists. While i think my sense and i have a lot of questions about transparency of money and about whether or not things are public, i feel for you because part of me thinks you are captured by those that you are supposed to regulate but then you are supposed to regulate those that you are captured by. I cant tell whether you are in charge or whether you are a minion to them. The notion that you cant forcefully stay i will go after this and i will make sure that no university allows their Athletic Department to handle a sexual allegation against one other team members, you know i dont sense that you feel like you have any control of the situation and if you have no control if you are merely a monetary pastor why should you even exist . Well i think the reality is that while the issue we are talking about here i dont have a photon and i dont get to set those policies, i can certainly set the tone on it and i can certainly be someone who voices a very loud opinion and says this is not right. This is an appropriate and these are the complex that exists when you have a policy and practice like this on their campus. When i first took this job the very first summit i held in indianapolis was a summit on sexual violence. It was this, that led to the creation of the working group of experts not College Athletic folks but experts from across the country to create a working group think tank. We are going to be showing the results of their work this summer as a workbook and a guide to best practices. Im out thanks to your work but to go in and make sure that this issue is addressed in that handbook and im going to talk to the leadership at her very next meeting in august about the fact that this is really an is really inappropriate and we need to find ways to make sure that Athletic Departments are not the ones who are responsible for adjudication of these issues because of all the obvious concerns that you raise. Thank you and im over my time. I hope somebody else covers the questions about young people from families that cant afford to even travel to see their Children Play in the games. Meanwhile universities are making a good chilean dollars off of their children but their parents cant even get a stipend to intend the game to watch their child play. Theres something wrong with that scenario and is going on across this country every single week. Thank you. Senator klobuchar. Thank you very much mr. Chairman i just want to start with one of my favorite stories is the coach for the university of Minnesota Football Team who has epilepsy and issue no dr. Emmert a number of seizures during stressful moments in games and members of the president has said we are not getting rid of him. Our record had been a little rocky but they kept the coach. He had to coach from a box and he couldnt coach on the field because of his condition. During the entire season he coached from the box and i was there when we beat nebraska with him in the box. It was a great moment. It was a great story but it does make me think as i hear all of this at the kind of compassion and what is so captivating about the story is to decide what had become of so many of these big sports games and the cutthroat competition and how people were treated. So i think what you are hearing appeared today is the hope that these are deliverables. These are things that can happen in a talk about changing the Sexual Assault policy and making sure the players have Health Care Insurance and made sure that they have the time to do these internships. These arent crazy hard things to do. I think they are possible things to do so what i want more than anything as as i listened while this is that we commit and i know the chairman will retire that he will be hearing sure for this, that he will have another hearing whether its six months from now her year from now to check up on whats happening. These are things we dont have to pass a law to change. When i listen to some of these commitments and the possibilities. I wanted to go with one of the things that we havent talked about as much and that is the issue of concussions. We have had several players whether at the High School Level or the College Level and i know you cosponsored his villainy have had hearings on the specific topic already but i understand that there is some work being done and theres a lawsuit thats going on but i wonder if you could comment dr. Emmert and i will ask you mr. Rolle with your medical focus of you to talk about this issue because i think its an issue for all level of sports. Is a critical issue is critical issue that must have lived in a fight with football of course but its also the cause of concussions for young women in soccer for example. It occurs in virtually every sport. Theres a number of things going on and i will be as quick as i can. First of all as i mentioned in my opening comments we created when i first came to the office i was surprised to find out there was the chief medical officer. We went out and hired a wonderful doctor who is a neurologist. He has been working unbelievably hard to pull together first of all the best science. One of the problems is we dont have good science on concussions and is not as well understood as we all might think. Once they have done that just this past handful of days they will use the firstever consensus among all the medical community on the treatment and prevention of concussions especially around football and football practice guidelines around contacts in a variety of other things. We signed with the department of defense about two months ago an agreement to do a 30 milliondollar project. We are putting up 50 million in dod is putting up 50 million to attract longitudinally the first of its ever kind of track longitudinally young men and women to try to get a legitimate history of the occurrence and treatment of concussions so we understand them better. We are working with youth sports all of the youth sports organizations trying to get better practice guidelines, working with the nfl on their heads a program to try to get coaches especially in football coaches trying to teach young men and boys have tackled properly but we have the same issue with soccer. There are some girls soccer coaches that are saying we need to ban any heading until girls and boys are 10 years of age age so winning our support for those kinds of efforts. We are making good headway but the facts are winning a lot better understanding of this disorder and how we can prevent it. Im pleased with where we are and im proud. Mr. Rolle it. Part of the reason i stopped playing in the nfl to go into a particular specialty narrow searches because i saw a lot of teammates are having early onset dementia nor traumatic brain injury or the things that you often associated with concussive episodes. I saw it in the nfl and i saw in college and now as an inspiring aspiring narrow solid narrow search and i would like to add to that. A lot of fellow athletes of mine we want to be fast and we want to be agile so they protective equipment that we where a lot of the guys with select equipment that is lighter and maybe not as protected so that may lead to more concussive deficits. Education as dr. Emmert that is incredibly important. We have athletic doctors and trainers to come and speak to us as collegiate athletes and talk to us about the dangers of concussions. As a player sometimes you feel pressured to get there as quickly as possible and if you have the risk of a second concussion you are likely to get a third fourth and fifth in it goes up exponentially actually. The pressures of trying to compete and not losing your position all at the same time as devin said earlier if you are not on the field in the coaches cant see you you are not exposed and you lose the opportunity of giving to your next level. Theres a lot of issues that go on. One way to address this issue along with education is to perhaps change the culture and change the focus of high velocity hits in the sport of football and the idea that thats part of the game. Its not a part of the game actually. If you look at the rulebook is take the player to the game similar to how rugby is performed at the see the highlights in the exposure on the high velocity hits were guys are spearing into another player and thats what gets highlighted and that is what gets celebrated and i think thats the wrong path. As i said hopefully in a few years or so i can add more knowledge but from my anecdotal knowledge it is an issue thats not only in the nfl but also college and even before that high school or Primary School football as well. Thank you and i will ask questions on the record about internships because i thought that was fascinating on a small proportion of the studentathletes going to prosports thats not likely going to be their career they have to have the ability to pursue it. If its supposed to be 20 hours then we have to find some way to measure that and enforce it so its acrosstheboard and thats one of the things im interested in hearing the followup and i thank you for bringing that to our attention. It also has to go down as we discussed yesterday to the High School Level so we put some of this in perspective. I too think there are ways to change cultures in this country and we have change cultures before and we still have great sports games. Thank you. Thank you senator klobuchar. Senator nelson i want to Say Something about you. To me this hearing so far has been a lot of talk about a lot of things which have been around for an awfully long time, which we all think should be solved but we but they are not solved in there are clear reasons and that is because decisionmaking is fragile flawed and useless. Florida which has everybody recruits in florida they have the law which you would know senator blumenthal that transparency how money is spent has to be made public as they have a law. And so the ncaa comes in and only a small portion goes to education all kinds of things go to this day. Thats all available to the public and so i commend you for coming from a state like that and i just think thats the path and there are so many answers that we otherwise seem to be and willing to do. Well thank you mr. Chairman. I think a lot has come out of this Committee Hearing that should enable and help dr. Emmert to continue with their reforms that he is trying. Now i would just so much has been said about so many of these issues. Let me just highlight some, a couple. I happen to know because i was mesmerized with mr. Rolle as a player at Florida State and for him to do his interview for the Rhodes Scholarship which was in the south on a saturday, his president , tk whether all had to get special dispensation so that they could get someone to donate a private jet for him that could fly him somewhere in the northeast because Florida State was playing up here and even so he made it only in the second half but the emphasis, you know thats something thats so common sense, that you would want a player to interview for the rhodes and yet it was a big deal and it shouldnt have been. Families that are dirt poor, and they dont have the opportunities that others do it seems to my its common sense, we should have sometime ends or whatever you call it, so it equalizes the Playing Field of the financial ability if those student athletes are contributing to the Financial Wellbeing of that university. So too with Health Insurance. That all to be common sense. If a player is hurt and thats a careerending injury, the best of medical care ought to be given to that player and for it to last for some period of time in the future. And of course, consuggestions just add a