Representatives of the NCAA, prominent athletic conferences, and athletics administrators have been pacing the halls of Congress asking their Senators and Representatives for federal laws that would negate the patchwork of state laws that gave college athletes name, image, and likeness employment rights outside their education institutions. Such employment is a good thing for athletes, … Read more
On August 1, 2023, The Drake Group sent its fourth request to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights asking that they issue existing Title IX guidance to colleges and universities to address sex discrimination in recruiting, publicity, promotion, and financial aid by name/image/likeness collectives (NIL collectives) they are directly and indirectly supporting. … Read more
WESTPORT, CT – July 18, 2023. Prompted by last week’s reports about systemic sexual hazing, harassment, racism, and other abuse in Northwestern University athletics programs, The Drake Group renewed its call for Congressional action on the College Athletes Bill of Rights, sponsored by U.S. Senators Cory Booker (NJ) and Richard Blumenthal (CT). The legislation would … Read more
On March 9, 2023, a delegation of Title IX and NIL experts from The Drake Group (TDG) met with Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) staff members to ask for the assistance of OCR to ensure gender equity and compliance with Title IX in the new chaotic environment created by NIL (name, image, … Read more
The Drake Group believes that the current NIL chaos can be relieved by DOE/OCR clearly and precisely warning institutions, their conferences, and national governance organizations of their obligations under existing Title IX requirements, explaining how those requirements apply to these new NIL-related activities, and warning that actions by “NIL booster collectives” will be attributed to the universities when appropriate. The … Read more
The Drake Group strongly endorses the Fair Play for Women Act and applauds Representative Adams and Senator Murphy for sponsoring the bill. The Act would strengthen existing statutes that require colleges and universities to publicly report data demonstrating their compliance with the athletics provisions of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and, for the first … Read more
The Drake Group prides itself on being non-partisan in its review, analysis and decisions to support legislation that will result in positive changes in college athletics. The NCAA Accountability Act of 2021 was authored by U.S. Representative David Kustoff (TN-R) and Representative Josh Harder (CA-D) and others joined as co-sponsors of this bi-partisan bill that … Read more
A new report by The Drake Group Education Fund (TDGEF) highlights the low graduation rates of Division I football and basketball players, especially Black athletes at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). It urges universities to improve academic support for these athletes, who face pressure to succeed in both academics and sports. Julie Sommer, Executive Director of … Read more
Athletes are accusing the NCAA of illegally withholding earnings from athletes related to the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL). On Nov. 3, 2023, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken certified three classes of college athletes consisting of at least 184,000 individuals regarding damages in the case, meaning, the NCAA faces monetary loss in … Read more
On December 7, 2023, Winston & Strawn LLP and Hagens Berman today filed an antitrust class action lawsuit in the Northern District of California against the NCAA and the five power conferences (Big Ten, SEC, Pac-12, ACC, and Big 12). The firms also won the Alston v. NCAA in the Supreme Court and are currently … Read more