The Protect College Sports Act (PCSA) isn’t “protection,” it’s a power grab. It shuts athletes out of the room, shuts their voices out of the process and hinders the momentum of collective bargaining: the only long-term solution proven to work for multibillion-dollar sports and entertainment industries.
Remember who this bill restores power to: the NCAA (and the company it formed, the College Sports Commission, the CSC). The same organization that once cited the Thirteenth Amendment’s Slave Labor Exception, comparing its own college athletes to prisoners as a legal justification to not pay them. Now, the Protect College Sports Act would hand that same organization new antitrust protections and the legal authority to control athletes, cap compensation and restrict their rights. Even the bill’s supposed “fixes,” to funding women’s and Olympic sports, such as media rights pooling, are optional.
To leaders in college athletics wondering whether a partnership with a players association could actually work, who wonder whether the pro leagues and their unions are partners in a joint venture or sworn enemies: their coordinated statements in support of the PCSA should answer the question. They’re aligned when it benefits their business model, regardless of whether it negatively impacts the earning potential or impedes on the rights of their future dues-paying members.
This is why Athletes.org remains firmly opposed to the PCSA and we will continue to stand alongside college athletes and work directly with the leaders who want to proactively build the only sustainable solution for college athletics through collective bargaining.
Athletes.org, “The Players Association for College Athletes,” is a voluntary membership organization whose membership includes more than 5,200 current and former college athletes. AO exists to educate, organize and represent college athletes as their chosen players association to ensure their seat at the table in the ever-changing landscape of college sports.
