Democrats push bill allowing college athletes to organize

The NCAA hopes to have news rules in place by July 1 as well.

The NCAA’s proposals regarding NIL would allow athletes to enter financial arrangements with third parties. Schools would be banned from being involved in the transactions.

While the NCAA has loosened restrictions on how athletes can be compensated over the years, it has held firm to notion they are not employees.

The latest bill by Murphy, who has been one of the most vocal advocates for college athlete rights on Capitol Hill, would upend the college model.

Scholarship athletes would be granted employee status and both public and private colleges would deemed their employers under an amended NLRA.

The NLRB would consider colleges within a conference part of a “bargaining unit.”

The bill would also protect the tax status of athletic scholarships and other benefits, and prohibit schools from asking athletes to waive the right to collectively bargain..

“Big-time college sports haven’t been ‘amateur’ for a long time, and the NCAA has long denied its players economic and bargaining rights while treating them like commodities,” Murphy said in a statement. “Having the right to do so will help athletes get the pay and protections they deserve and forces the NCAA to treat them as equals rather than second-class citizens. It’s a civil rights issue, and a matter of basic fairness.”