President Biden part of discussion on creating 'better environment' for college athletes

President Joe Biden on Wednesday participated for about 40 minutes in a roundtable discussion with former college football players about issues surrounding the treatment and benefits college-sports programs provide to their athletes, one of the meeting participants said.

Former Georgia running back Keith Marshall told USA TODAY Sports that the session, which also included a number of White House staffers, lasted for more than an hour. And while he said he came into the meeting wondering whether it was a "PR play," he came away believing the White House "is clearly very interested in being involved in the conversation" about ongoing college sports issues and "how to create a better environment" for college athletes.

"It was just exciting," added Marshall, who is a co-founder of The Players' Lounge, a web platform that provides content from current and former college athletes and seeks to provide them with additional opportunities to make money from their name, image and likeness (NIL).

Marshall said Biden and his staff "didn't get into any federal legislation ... or that you can expect us to do X or Y or Z" but that Biden "100 percent" believes that athletes should be able to receive long-term health care for injuries suffered while playing college sports. Marshall also said the conversation covered safety issues, the question of whether athletes should be able to unionize, matters related to athletes' NIL activities and Title IX.

Prior to the meeting, a White House official said the session was “to discuss why college football players - and all student-athletes - deserve consistent safety standards, to have voice, and to benefit from the revenue they produce.

“The student-athletes who play college football work hard on behalf of their schools, their communities, and their families and President Biden believes all workers should be treated fairly and college athletes should be too,” the official said. “All college athletes deserve consistent safety standards, to have voice, and to benefit from the revenue they produce.”

Amid heavy lobbying from officials representing the NCAA, conferences and schools, there are a variety of bills and discussion drafts of bills that have been circulated on Capitol Hill this year regarding college athletes’ NIL activities, as well as issues about health-care benefits, safety and educational opportunities.

The NCAA is eager for a law that would create federal standards concerning athletes NIL activities that would take the place of the current patchwork of state laws. It also wants any Congressional action to prevent college athletes from becoming employees of their schools, and it wants protection from lawsuits challenging changes to its rules.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has offered a proposal that is relatively narrow in its focus on NIL matters. Cruz is the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has primary jurisdiction over this issue. But Sen. Maria Cantwell, who chairs the committee said recently she wants any Congressional legislation related to college sports to cover more than issues related to NIL.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; Jerry Moran, R-Kan.; and Cory Booker, D-N.J., have put forward a much wider-ranging idea that, among other things, would establish a set of rules for athletes’ short- and long-term health care, their safety and their educational choice.

Sens. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., have introduced a bill that attempts to cover those issues, but also would largely prevent athletes from transferring schools for their first three years of eligibility and would provide the NCAA with a measure of legal protection from suits connected to the changes that would be made under their bill.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., have introduced a measure that includes, among other things, a provision allowing athletes from foreign countries to engage in NIL activities while they are in the United States. U.S. student-visa rules regarding work here by foreign students have made it virtually impossible for the thousands of athletes on NCAA teams to have NIL deals the way American athletes can.

Wednesday’s meeting, according to the White House official, was to include National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard and senior advisor and Director of the Office of Public Engagement Steve Benjamin.

In addition to Marshall, the former athletes invited were Andrew Luck, Desmond Howard, Ryan Clark, Rod Gilmore and Jordan Meachum. Howard, Clark and Gilmore have become commentators for ESPN. Meachum is involved with an athlete advocacy group, the College Football Players Association. ESPN anchor Kevin Negandhi also was invited.

There were no female athletes on the list of invitees, which also did not include a current college athlete.

Marshall said White House staff asked about the day-to-day lives of college athletes, and that the former players talked about "amateurism and the reality that it is a farce ... with the sheer volume of revenue going up every year" and college athletes lacking the kind of lobbying advocacy that professional athletes have through their unions.

The Biden Administration’s position on college athletes stated Wednesday is not surprising, given that one of its appointees, National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, issued a memorandum in September 2021 saying that she views college athletes as employees of their schools under the National Labor Relations Act.

That opinion is being tested, starting this week, as an administrative law judge began proceedings Tuesday in a National Labor Relations Board complaint against the NCAA, the Pac-12 Conference and the University of Southern California that alleges they have unlawfully misclassified college athletes as "student-athletes" rather than employees.

Those proceedings began just days after a federal judge in California granted class-action status in the damages portion of a lawsuit against the NCAA and major-college athletics conferences that could result in a multi-billion-dollar award to former and current college athletes.

The suit challenges the association’s remaining rules regarding athletes’ ability to make money from their names, images and likenesses and seeks damages based on the share of television-rights money and the social media earnings it claims athletes would have received if the NCAA’s previous limits on NIL compensation had not existed.