(This article comes courtest of MissouriNet, written by Mathew Pilger.)
Changes could be coming to college athletics that impact Missouri schools and student-athletes.
U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., is backing a bipartisan proposal aimed at setting new national rules for transfers, eligibility and how college sports generate revenue.
Schmitt said the goal is to restore stability after years of legal challenges that have limited the NCAA’s authority.
“The ability to have some rules like a one-time transfer, five years of eligibility, those sorts of things — the NCAA can’t really do any of that now because over the course of ten years in litigation, they’ve been neutered,” Schmitt told Missourinet. “They can’t enforce any rules. So, this would give them antitrust protection.”
The proposal, known as the Protect College Sports Act, would allow conferences to voluntarily pool media rights in an effort to increase revenue. Schmitt said that could help offset financial pressures that are threatening smaller sports programs.
“You’ve got women’s sports, Olympic sports that are on the chopping block now because the economics have changed,” he said. “All those resources are going to college football — there’s nothing left for the other sports. We want to try to stop that, to open up some different revenue options for conferences to pool their media rights, to be voluntary.”
Schmitt said increased revenue from media rights deals could help sustain non-revenue sports.
“College football conferences could come together voluntarily and negotiate — you would see billions of new revenue,” he said. “That would be part of it set aside for sports that don’t generate any revenue at all, but we want to protect, like gymnastics.”
The bill is backed by senators Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Chris Coons, D-Del.
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