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While a bill to add a new swath of regulations to college sports is generating a swell of bipartisan support, some opponents are suggesting that the bill itself is racist.
The Protect College Sports Act, pushed by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has so far survived two key hurdles in the Senate and is on its way to a final vote in the coming week.
However, NAACP President Derrick Johnson, the Congressional Black Caucus and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., one of a handful of Senate Democrats pushing against the bill, have argued that the bill would disproportionately affect Black student-athletes and put their newfound agency in decision-making granted by name, image and likeness (NIL) back into the hands of White coaches and college presidents.
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“It’s a civil rights issue, that’s the reason the NAACP is strongly opposing this bill, because they see it as a civil rights issue,” Murphy told Fox News Digital. “I didn’t make that up. That’s the reality.”
“The athletes who will be most affected by this bill are largely Black athletes, and the people who will be helped by this bill are largely White coaches and White college sports executives,” he continued. “I’m not the one who sees this as a civil rights issue, the NAACP opposes it because they see this as a civil rights issue.”
The Protect College Sports Act would broadly add restrictions to the transfer portal for student-athletes and create a uniform eligibility framework of five years, recruiting and tampering guardrails that establish when schools or agents can contact or recruit a student-athlete, a federal standard for NIL rules, and a revenue-sharing cap.
Proponents of the bill, including former President Barack Obama’s brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, who is the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, argued that the bill did not disenfranchise Black athletes.
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“Well, you know everybody is entitled to their interpretation of what’s going on,” Robinson told Fox News Digital. “I would disagree with that, and I would point out that if we don’t fix this system, the same student-athletes they’re talking about are not going to be college educated, because you cannot get educated by transferring to four or five different schools. You can’t get a college degree doing that, so that’s what I would say.”
Robinson was one of several former coaches who made the trip to Washington, D.C., this week to promote and support the bill.
Craig Bohl, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, told Fox News Digital that the assertion that the legislation had racist undertones was “the farthest thing from the truth.”
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“You know, one of the things that has been good for me, you know, working 43 years, coaches care deeply about all our players,” Bohl said. “And while I appreciate their convictions on it, it’s a misguided statement.”
“What we’re looking at is opportunities for all. We want players to have an opportunity for compensation,” he continued. “We want players to be able to have the ability to transfer. We also are looking for some stability with eligibility. We don’t need NFL players coming back playing in our game.”
The Congressional Black Caucus has argued against the bill for months and charged that its members would not support the legislation after the Supreme Court’s decision on the Voting Rights Act earlier this year.
“Honestly, some of those concerns initially were over redistricting, and, you know, I’m not solving that problem with this bill,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., one of the co-leads of the bill, told Fox News Digital.
“We’re just trying to address the chaos that exists right now in college athletics, where 27-year-olds are playing against 17-year-olds, unlimited transfers, graduation rates are plummeting,” he continued.
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