Indiana Senator Todd Young Weighs in on NIL, College Athletics

WASHINGTON–One of the many people who spoke about the current state of college athletics on Wednesday was Indiana Republican Senator Todd Young.

The room was nearly packed for Wednesday’s Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing.

Young said it is clear that Congress needs to get involved.

“Congressional action is necessary to ensure that the NIL landscape is built on clear rules, fair rules, and rules that lead to a measure of predictability moving forward,” said Young.

Young, like many of his colleagues, believes that without a federal framework, the legal and operational uncertainty around this space will only cause our academic institutions and the athletes to suffer.

“We need to provide protection for our student athletes and universities in order to ensure the longevity not just for football and basketball, but also our Olympic sports and our women. As with any legislation that Congress contemplates, we need to do our due diligence to make sure it works as intended,” said Young.

The bill that was discussed on Wednesday was the Protect College Sports Act. Nothing was decided on the bill, but supporters of it expressed why it needed to get passed into law. It would provide the NCAA with an antitrust exemption to enforce several rules that have been challenged in court in recent years. Those rules would include:

• Limiting athletes to transferring schools only one time without penalty;

• Limiting athlete eligibility to a maximum of five years;

• Prohibiting former professional athletes from playing in college;

• Prohibiting schools from poaching a coach from another school during their sport’s season