On February 7, 2024, National Girls and Women in Sports Day, U.S. Senator Christopher Murphy (CT-D) and U.S. Representative Alma Adams (NC-12-D) introduced the Fair Play for Women Act in the 118th Congress. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Representatives Lori Trahan (D-MS-03) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR-1) co-sponsored the legislation. Donna A. … Read more
On December 5, 2023, NCAA President Baker proposed a new Division I tier in which schools would be required to pay at least 50 percent of their male and female athletes a minimum of $30,000 annually and have no limits on how much schools could pay individual athletes for use of their NILs. Pundits suggest … Read more
Included in this program are the presentations of national awards to Sedona Prince, University of Oregon basketball player and journalism students who have excelled in investigative reporting on intercollegiate athletics. Allen Sack, Co-Founder of The Drake Group delivers a keynote address. In the midst of the current governance, NIL and athlete exploitation chaos, can a … Read more
Following decades of enormous legal fees challenging rules restraining college athlete employment, facing hundreds of concussion-related lawsuits, and then suffering an adverse June 2022 Alston U.S. Supreme Court decision that eviscerated its college athlete eligibility system built on control through use of “amateur status” regulations, the organization appeared to freeze based on fear of future … Read more
On January 20, 2022, the 1,082 member institutions of the NCAA will have another opportunity to demonstrate their willingness to enter another “Faustian bargain” – a deal with the devil at the price of one’s soul. If approved, the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) will operate with little or no restraint. It will retain voting control … Read more
A regular feature of our webinar series is “Follow-Up Notes/Q&As” which provides a link to the recorded webinar, answers to questions from the audience that panelists did not have the time to address (prepared by Drake Group experts), and information on previous and next webinars. This edition covers audience questions related to panelists’ discussion of … Read more
The NCAA has been frozen with indecision since the June U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting its “amateur status” rules. Fearful of legal responsibility, the organization is pursuing a constitutional convention restructure that reeks of throwing its conference and institutional members under the litigation bus. College athletics has lost its way because of a failure of governance – … Read more
The Drake Group President-Elect Andrew Zimbalist and Drake Board of Directors member Julie Sommer wield a mighty pen with a timely critique of the NCAA’s efforts in the courts to protect its profits – revenues derived from the labor of talented, hard-working—and disproportionately Black—college athletes, especially those playing in the women’s and men’s Final Four … Read more
The Moran Bill permits intercollegiate athletes to monetize their names, images, and likenesses (NILs), and at its core is similar to recent proposals put forth by Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CN). The bill also mirrors many of The Drake Group’s proposals, including broad NIL rights for college athletes … Read more