College football starts in basketball and you get to root for your alma mater or the team yet come to follow and its a lot of fun. Its gotten to be really big business. There are billions of dollars gamble on College Athletics. Theres billions of dollars in revenue generated from College Athletics, and its all built around a model of amateur athletics. So the fact that a lot of people are making money off amateur athletics, the challenge is, trying to make sure that the Business Model is fair, what you do but the people watching play the sport without destroying the amateur nature of the game . Because most of the people on a College Athletic team, that will be the end of their athletic career in terms of getting compensated. They get scholarships, many of them do, and room and board of them go into the private sector and go on about their lives. But the College Athletic experience is something i want to reserve. There are many people get to share that experience who will not turn it into their livelihood. We have highlighted in this country requiring College Athletics to focus on opportunities for women, and thats a good thing. Senator booker play at the highest level College Athletics, football, and the reality is many schools, football budget supports everything else. If youre an athlete out there, how do we treat you fairly without turning the whole game into a minorleague sport . What i worry about the most is a onetwo punch. Three states have now passed legislation, california, colorado and florida, allowing for name, likeness and images of College Athletes to be reimbursed. The one thing i am dead set on is that we cannot start a bidding war for recruits. We cannot have 50 different approaches to how you reimburse a premier athlete. This has no limits. Alumni, through their business enterprises, can hire top recruits at unlimited amounts to come play for that team. Its going to great a bidding war with no end for college recruits. So the one thing i think is important is that we have a National Solution to this growing problem. I dont know what the right answer is what i do know this, we cannot allow this to turn into a bidding war in the wild, wild west when it comes to recruiting College Athletes and how you reimburse them for the name, likeness and their image. So i just see the distraction of College Athletics as we know it, and lest we get a on it. Gambling, a lot of people gamble. Probably everybody that other home team with their buddies. Gambling on sports as part of america, but theres a side to gambling that could be a second punch to the integrity of the sport. There are states now in the Sports Betting business on College Athletics after the Supreme Court ruling on line gambling, very to control. I worry about the impact of gambling on College Athletics post Supreme Court decision. What should we do if anything at the state level . You can literally bet on whether its a pass on one play. You can bet on almost anything, and that does unnerve me about the potential for abuse. We have got great lineup of witnesses on both issues, and i will turn it over to my colleagues, but again the one thing im convinced of is that the federal government through the Congress Needs to get control of this before we allow the wild, wild west to take over when it comes to these two issues. Senator blumenthal. Thanks, mr. Chairman. We do have a great lineup of witnesses and what you think the chairman for giving us this opportunity and senator feinstein for even me the oppoy to be Ranking Member. I will not take offense, mr. Chairman, for your failure to make reference to my very own lunch is clear in College Sports. I was saving the in. As as a member of the harvard swimming team. I was neither the star was a great athlete that my colleague, senator booker, was at stanford. Im not going to tell me what my name, image and likeness would even worse in those days. But today brings us together very seriously for a very, very important hearing, and if you want to very seriously thank my colleague, senator booker, for being the quarterback and star of an effort that we are leading together as partners to establish a framework, the bill of rights, a set of principles that will protect athletes, and the going to enumerate some of them today. But this framework and set of principles, the bill of rights, its important in making sure that colleges put Athletes First. First. We are talking about lies and dollars lives. A lot of both. The point is those lives due to be put first. Athletes need to be given priority. The literal blood sweat and tears of athletes is what fuels a 14 billion industry, but into a very recently athletes received none of it. For far too long special interest have hidden a multibilliondollar industry from scrutiny under the masquerade of amateurism. Four years schools come conferences in the ncaa resisted all reforms. Their response to athletes was a blanket no. Thanks to those College Athletes themselves for stepping up and speaking out, a growing number of states have passed or introduce legislation that ensures those athletes some rights over their own name, image, and likeness. Some states have gone further to provide health and educational safeguards to students, only after those states took that action and started passing laws, did we hear from the schools and association about an urgent need for congress to act. The pattern is familiar to all of us in the United States senate once the states start taking action to offer protection to consumers, patience, athletes, the industry comes forward asking for a National Standard. Im interested to hear more about the atomic five and the ncaa proposals but i want to send this message which i think many of us feel is allimportant. We want reforms with realty and real protection athletes. Put the Athletes First, and colleges to his that message loud and clear. College athletes must receive fair compensation for their work. They deserve to share fairly in the revenue they create through their photos, their jerseys, their merchandise promotion with the name, image, and likeness this is a matter of equity and equality. Athletes have to be protected against exploited practices that may be inadvertent but still pernicious. And that is a Racial Justice dimension here. It is a dimension that cost Racial Justice, economic justice, health care justice. Our nation is in the middle of a profound reckoning on the systematic Racial Injustices of our entire society, and it should not be lost on any of us that collegiate sports generate the highest revenue are disproportionately played by students of color. That is an undeniable fact about todays College Athletes world. Our Current System and students access to the revenue that their labor generates, and that is unfair, unjust, and it reflects Racial Injustice as well as economic injustice. And thats why today im proud to announce that i am working on a framework with senator booker for a College Athletes bill of rights. This framework succeeds where the ncaa has too often failed and it centers on the rights and welfare of College Athletes. Our framework empowers and protects economic rights of athletes here it allows students to market their name, image, and likeness rights both individually and on a group basis. It would also ensure that students have the opportunity to negotiate revenuesharing agreements with athletic associations, conferences, and schools. It would empower and protect students right to an education, enable them beyond the academic and athletic career. Currently fewer than 6010 College Students graduate in four years and only 55 of the black male athletes from the power five conferences graduate within six years. Our framework will provide College Athletes with commensurate lifetime scholarships to give them more time to complete their degree. We create and empower transparency and give athletes the right to hold accountable their colleges. Our framework would create an Oversight Panel with the regulation of agents and thirdparty used to athletes and make sure they have a real voice. And finally, the framework protects the health and wellbeing of the student athlete. Nothing is more important. It is unacceptable that College Athletes continue to die, literally die heatrelated illnesses and athletic programs still failed to report on all collegiate sports injuries, including concussion. We require comprehensive Health Care Coverage and support with sports related injury. Perhaps most importantly this framework also includes essential health and Safety Measures with real enforcement mechanism. Enforcement is key as i know from my own career in Law Enforcement. This pandemic has highlighted the need to enact Strong Health and safety protections across the country. Schools are now rushing to bring students back on campus. We are watching a slowmotion potential catastrophe. We all want called sportster were all want colleges to reopen. Reopen. It has to be done safely, putting Athletes First, putting Athletes First tragically but not surprisingly a lot of decisions have led to clusters of outbreaks in school such as Ohio State University and the university of north carolina. If the schools and the ncaa prioritize Student Health and safety and if they did it from the start, they would not fight accountability and basic rights. So let me just conclude by saying, congress has a a great opportunity to move forward on a bipartisan basis. The ivy league has sent a message so it will pay. Other schools will have to make decision. Hopefully they were put College Athletes first and their wellbeing has to be our priority. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you. I learned a lot, college swimmer. Thats very impressive. I cant swing and i couldnt get into harvard i admire you even more. You should come down to the senate gym and i will give you some lesson. Okay, thank you. Senator booker. I want to say thank you to the gentleman on the right, Ranking Member and chairman farr line me too speaker disability issue that is very personal for me and i want to associate myself with your overly gracious estimations of my football career. I was an allamerican but actually i was the most highly overrated athlete in the history of the ncaa. And got into stanford because of a 4. 0, 1600 receiving yards i have nothing in common with you either. [laughing] 1600, you doubled me. 1600 receiving yards, not on my sats. Im just grateful to have spoke to say and Opening Statement and means a lot to me personally because this is an issue i have worked on, talked about literally since i was a college student. I wouldnt be sitting here today if it was not the time i spent as an Ncaa Division i Football Player at stanford. The lessons i learned from experience i had are absolutely invaluable. I stand on that foundation. I am a senator in part because of those experiences. What ive i learned from my teammates, coaches like denny green, some of best ever to coach the sport. What is learned about teamwork, work ethic, leadership, strategy, planning. For me it was an incredible experience and like many College Athletes sports can open doors of opportunity that most young people never really even knew existed. But, unfortunately, for far too many Others College sports are not always empowering and people to succeed. Instead, plainly they are exploiting them and disproportionately exploiting young black athletes who are overrepresented in those major revenue sports. Its with low income and disproportionate black and brown College Athletes whose labor can choose to about the 15 billiondollar industry, but they see none of it. They try to scrape together enough money even to fly their parents out to just see one of their games in person. Its College Athletes who sustain many serious injuries that will follow them for the rest of their lives. With not only nothing to show for in terms of compensation but now the way things stand they limited access to health care once they stop playing. Often having to pay out of pocket for healthcare for injuries they sustained making millions for the universities. The problem is that while i know were here today to discuss the opportunity for College Athletes to market and profit off with her name, image, and likeness often referred to as an il that is all we have been doing when it comes to the problems of College Sports, discussing the vanessa lincoln. The ranking the reset it quite plain. In 2014, think theres only been to mr. Coons, i lost my temper but it was 2014 any hearing when we discussed these same issues years ago and the challenges cause athletes face when mr. Emmett was witness and before the Commerce Committee. As Ranking Member said we have seen no significant progress whatsoever. This is why ive been honored to work with the Ranking Member and his incredible staff to be in conversation with other of our colleagues and extraordinary in the own right who are determined to stop this explication of College Athletes. They are largely the same as they were when i was cause athletes seen these things with my own eyes what than two decades ago. The ncaa has failed generations of young men and women, even when it comes to the most basic responsibility of keeping the athletes under their charge safe and healthy. The ncaa has failed to ensure that all College Athletes are also empowered even graduate with a degree. I see the ncaa often touting a 90 graduation rate, but that is just telling part of the story. In the revenuegenerating sports we see a different story. Just each 5 of black men from the conferences graduate within six years. The aca, ncaa continues to fight tooth and nail, excuse after excuse to ensure that College Athletes, specifically black athletes who generate an outsized amount of College Sport revenue, and are unable to share in the 15 billion industry that College Sports has become, featuring alien dollar media deals, Million Dollar coaching salaries, laundry facilities that rival that of professional leagues. The students that are producing that revenue on the field often end up with medical bills throughout the lives, without college degrees, and other things that are unacceptable. And, unfortunately, based upon the plant i see from the ncaa, that shows no sign of changing. The proposals are too restricted to actually benefit College Athletes. Even more, this was surprising to become their proposals undermine the stated goals of uniformity by allowing different rules from school to school as opposed to buy statebystate. They are symbols of reform what they propose. Must be very clear, they are not reform. Its symbolism and not substance. The proposal would allow each individual university to determine which thirdparty endorsement deal would be permissible and which would not, in fact, their proposal is so restrictive that would prevent College Athletes from receiving any endorsement deal from any organization that doesnt have an existing or prospective contract with the institution or with any other competitors. The ncaa propose is not only similarly restrictive would sunset after ten years effectively block individual states from making progress on the image and likeness only to put all of us back here in another ten years. The time has come for substantive reforms. We cannot wait to have a hearing every four or five years in the senate will be talk about the same levels of unfair explication i talked to a fenced in the senate on both sides sif the aisle. He blew out your knee in your junior year in college completely forget they guaranteed scholarship for next year. They can cast aside like a piece of meat. This goes on in the ncaa. So im grateful for the work thats going on with the Ranking Member, my senior senator here, this work on creating a set of Guiding Principles for this. Its something im going to work very hard on getting as much of us on Common Ground as possible so we can have a unified voice those people