Some in Congress remain obsessed with cleaning up the mess that college sports created through decades of their own antitrust violations. As many who would rather Congress not get involved in their business like to say, “Doesn’t Congress have better things to do?”
That’s a fair reaction to the news that a bipartisan bill dubbed the “Save College Sports Act” will soon be introduced by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash).
Let’s start with the title. Save College Sports. Who says they need to be saved? And what are they being saved from, other than their own past behavior?
The current challenges trace to decades of antitrust violations flowing from a system under which the NCAA created rules that applied to otherwise independent businesses that legally couldn’t come together and fix labor costs. The NCAA became the tool for the antitrust violations, allowing any/every given university to say to a player who wanted to be paid to say, “Sorry, but we can only give you free tuition, fees, room, board, books, and snacks. Them’s the rules.”
The new bill would, via CBS Sports, give the schools a limited antitrust exemption allowing the schools to make enforceable rules regarding eligibility and transfers. The bill also would create a hard salary cap.
While the bill would also prohibit coaches from leaving for new college jobs during a given season, it wouldn’t limit coaching pay or mobility after the season concludes. Which is fundamentally unfair; why can coaches make as much as the market will bear but players can’t?
The Senate’s effort replaces the SCORE Act, a measure in the House of Representatives that was recently abandoned due to lack of support. The Save College Sports Act should be abandoned, too.
The colleges and universities should be expected to respect the existing antitrust laws. The best solution continues to be forming a nationwide union and engaging in collective bargaining. That would give the NCAA and its members the antitrust exemption they crave.
But the schools don’t want to do that. Collective bargaining comes with a cost. To get what the schools want, they’d have to give something up in return. From money to other terms, like reduced padded practices or offseason conditioning programs.
College sports don’t need to be saved from anything other than the natural consequences of decades of unchecked greed. The NCAA and its members made this mess. They should be expected to clean it up.
Because, yes, Congress absolutely has better things to do than to throw a lifeline to an industry that ignored the antitrust laws for decades and now wants a license to start doing it again.
