Senator Murphy on Fairly Compensating College Athletes: I See It As Our Mission to Save College Sports

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Thursday served as Ranking Member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing, Don't Fumble Their Future: Positioning Student-Athletes for Success in School and Beyond. During the hearing, Murphy blasted a multi-billion-dollar college sports industry which corruptly funnels the majority of profits to coaches and NCAA executives rather than student athletes. Murphy argued the corporate exploitation of college athletes is an existential threat to the college sports system and advocated for reforms that ensure fair compensation and put athletes first.

Murphy is one of the U.S. Senate's most strident advocates for the rights and fair compensation of college athletes. Earlier this Congress, he reintroduced the College Athlete Right to Organize Act (CARO), legislation to codify the right of college athletes to unionize and collectively bargain for fair compensation and better working conditions, and the College Athlete Economic Freedom Act to expand and codify the right of college athletes to be fairly compensated for the use of their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). He also introduced the Fair Play for Women Act, a bill to promote fairness in participation opportunities and institutional support for women's and girls' sports programs.

Murphy opened the hearing by celebrating college sports' central role in American culture: "Fandom brings together people across political and cultural spectrums to root for their local team. College sports is a unifying exercise in our country and it is a part of what's great about America. But greed and big business is threatening the college sports model, especially those big money making sports like football and basketball. The model has become extractive and explicated… I see it as our mission to save college sports."

He warned college sports will not survive without serious reforms to compensate athletes fairly: "In no other billion-dollar industry in America are wages controlled so vigorously and unfairly for the most valuable employees. High-value athletes who labor under a system of collusion and wage suppression are not going to do it for much longer. Either the top performing players are going to abandon college athletics, which is already happening to an extent in college basketball, or the Supreme Court is going to eventually rule that the system is illegal and unconstitutional."

Murphy made his case against the SCORE Act: "The SCORE Act, which is in the House now, is an effort to put the big schools back in a position where they can collude and wage suppress. It fails to require Title IX compliance which mandates equitable treatment for female athletes, it bars players from being considered employees, and grants the NCAA a blanket antitrust exemption. It wouldn't solve the problem because it would permanently push the highest valued athletes out of college sports and I think that would just diminish the experience for everyone. I also don't think it would pass. Over a dozen organizations have come out against it, including the Congressional Black Caucus."

Calling out the NCAA's continued exploitation of the student athletes driving multi-billion-dollar revenues, he continued: "They want a fig leaf to pacify athletes: some compensation, but far less than what they are worth, so that the adults, the high earning coaches, the sports industry CEOs, and others can keep their position of primacy as the primary monetary beneficiaries in a corrupt system."

He emphasized the NIL system is not workable in the long-term: "Let me be clear, the current system that we have now - the nontransparent NIL deals, secret booster collectives, players moving teams every year - it's not worth defending either. It is better for the athletes than the old system, but it's also not working."

A full transcript of Murphy's opening remarks is available below. You can watch the entire opening statement here.

Senator Murphy: Thank you very much Mr. Chairman, good to sit next to you at this very important hearing, really appreciate your willingness to put this hearing on. It is important for this committee to exercise, as you note, our jurisdiction over this really critical issue. Like you, I'm a huge college sports fan and I'm a huge college basketball fan, in particular. My state stops on weeks like this to follow the men's and women's teams in the tournament. Much of my life has been shaped by playing and watching sports. I wasn't good enough to play in college, but I would not have needed to be paid. I would have paid to play sports in college. That is how important it was to me in my upbringing. So, what I see is that our mission is to save college sports. Because there is so much good that comes from it.

Senator Cassidy, you talked about the athletes who get so much from their participation - lives are changed. But I also think about the way that fandom brings together people across political and cultural spectrums to root for their local team. College sports is a unifying exercise in our country, it's a part of what's great about America. But greed and big business, it's threatening the college sports model, especially in those big money making sports like football and basketball. The model has become extractive and exploitative. In no other billion-dollar industry in America are wages controlled so vigorously and unfairly for the most valuable employees. High-value athletes who labor under a system of collusion and wage suppression are not going to do it for much longer.

Either the top performing players are going to abandon college athletics - and that's already happening to an extent in college basketball - or the Supreme Court is going to eventually rule that the system is illegal and unconstitutional. In the unanimous 9-0 Alston decision, Brett Kavanaugh, conservative justice, said 'nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate.' I know the solution that the NCAA and its most powerful schools want: is for us to just pass legislation that limits the ability for the highest value athletes to earn a fair market rate - exactly what the unanimous Supreme Court decision said was so wrong about college athletics. They want a fig leaf to pacify athletes: some compensation, but far less than what they are worth, so that the adults, the high earning coaches, the sports industry CEOs, and others can keep their position of primacy as the primary monetary beneficiaries in a corrupt system.

Let's just put all of our cards on the table here: part of what makes this corrupt is that this is an economically unfair system but it is also a question of civil rights. It shouldn't be lost on anybody that the people who make the most money off of continued wage restrictions would be white male adults and the people who would lose the most are young, black, athletes. The SCORE Act, which is in the House now, is an effort to put the big schools back in a position where they can collude and wage suppress. It fails to require Title IX compliance which mandates equitable treatment for female athletes, it bars players from being considered employees, and grants the NCAA a blanket antitrust exemption. It wouldn't solve the problem because it would permanently push the highest valued athletes out of college sports and I think that would just diminish the experience for everyone. I also don't think it would pass. Over a dozen organizations have come out against it, including the Congressional Black Caucus.

Two final things: First, I do hope we talk about the impact on the so-called Olympic sports and women's sports. I acknowledge that is a really important issue here. But personally, I suspect that it's a red herring to suggest that there isn't enough money in the existing system to be able to both fairly compensate the highest value athletes in the high revenue sports and continue high-level college athletics in the other sports and for women. I think that sounds like a scare tactic to try to preserve the current system in which the very rich folks stay very rich. And lastly, let me be clear, that the current system that we have now - the nontransparent NIL deals, secret booster collectives, players moving teams every year - that's not worth defending either. It is better for the athletes than the old system, but it's also not working.

Now, I've introduced legislation that would create college players associations, so that the athletes can just negotiate directly with the schools and frankly keep Congress out of micromanaging college sports. I think that's the best way forward. But I do submit that we need to fix what was wrong with the old system but also what's wrong with the existing system. And that is why I think this hearing is so timely and so important.

Mr. Chairman, thank you for allowing me to join you on the dais this morning.