NCAA President Charlie Baker to appear at at legislative hearing addressing NIL

Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., on Thursday released a new discussion draft of a college-sports bill that now involves collaboration with a Democrat in each chamber of Congress, and he and House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., are announcing a legislative hearing on the proposal that will be held next week and include NCAA President Charlie Baker among the witnesses.

The session, before the Bilirakis-chaired Innovation, Data and Commerce Subcommittee, will be the first legislative hearing of this Congress concerning college athletes’ activities in making money from their name, image and likeness (NIL). Up to this point, there have been what are termed educational hearings. The next step would be a mark-up hearing.

A statement from Bilirakis' office said he is being joined in his effort to find a federal legislative solution by Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M. This now means there is an attempt at a college-sports bill being undertaken on a bipartisan and bicameral basis. Lujan is a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, the panel that is seen as having primary jurisdiction over matters related to college sports.

The new discussion draft is the third version of Bilirakis’ proposal, which he first announced in May and revised in September. But its core tenets remains unchanged: In addition to formally legalizing athletes’ ability to make money from their NIL, it would create an independent, non-governmental, self-regulating organization that would “oversee, set rules, enforce, and provide guidance to student athletes and collectives on the NIL process,” according to the release from Bilirakis’ office announcing the new discussion draft.

The new entity, which would be called the U.S. Intercollegiate Athletics Commission, would refer enforcement actions to the Federal Trade Commission when alleged rules violations involved agents or third parties and to the NCAA whe they involved schools or athletes.

The discussion draft also includes a provision that would expressly prevent schools from entering into an NIL agreement with an athlete. That puts the draft at odds with Baker’s recent proposal that would allow schools to have such arrangements.

In addition, the draft includes language that raises questions about whether it would permit another part of Baker’s proposal, which would also create a new competitive subdivision whose schools would be required to put at least $30,000 into “an enhanced educational trust fund” for at least half of their athletes.

While the draft would put into law that athletes cannot be considered employees of their schools, conferences or the NCAA based on their participation in college sports — a feature for which the NCAA has been lobbying — it does not appear to offer the type of protection from antitrust lawsuits the association is seeking. It would provide legal protection only when a school, conference or the NCAA took an action that was based on a referral from the new commission.

"The NCAA is making changes that require member schools to provide more benefits to student-athletes including health coverage past graduation and guaranteed academic supports," the association said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports, "but there are some issues the NCAA cannot address alone and we are thankful for the careful consideration of these important issues by a bipartisan coalition."