SAN ANTONIO — The future of the collegiate model has never been more uncertain.
So college sports leaders have decided to be clearer than ever about what they want, measures they believe are essential in order to preserve college sports as we know it. And, to them, the solution lies in Congress. Yes, the same Congress whose House of Representatives just required 15 painstaking votes to elect a speaker.
No one ever said it’d be easy to work with Congress. But it may be the only way forward, according to Baylor president Linda Livingstone, who chairs the NCAA Board of Governors, the organization’s highest governing body. Livingstone spent a great deal of time at the NCAA’s annual convention on Thursday detailing the need for Congressional help as the association faces myriad attacks from outside entities. Multiple lawsuits aimed at the economic structure of college athletics are working their way through the courts in a legal environment that appears more supportive of athletes’ rights than ever before. The National Labor Relations Board is proceeding with an unfair labor practice charge filed against USC, the Pac-12 and the NCAA in a push to categorize athletes as employees.
Livingstone repeatedly said that the NCAA needs Congress to protect the categorization of…
