Baker, Petitti set to testify over future of NCAA

• Dan Murphy, ESPN Staff WriterOct 10, 2023, 12:37 PM ET Close Covers the Huge 10

• Joined ESPN.com in 2014
• Graduate of the University of Notre Dame

NCAA president Charlie Baker and Big 10 commissioner Tony Petitti are scheduled to testify at a Senate hearing about the future of college sports next week.Baker and lots of other college sports administrators have actually asked Congress to compose a brand-new federal law that would enable the NCAA to regulate how athletes generate income and secure the association from what has been a steady and effective attack of legal difficulties to its company model.Next week’s hearing hosted by the Senate Judiciary Committee

on Oct. 17 will mark the 10th time college sports leaders have actually been called to Capitol Hill considering that 2020. The judiciary committee expects to add at least two or three extra witnesses to next week’s hearing, according to a legislative assistant. Walker Ross, a former Under Armour executive who now runs a booster cumulative related to Ole Miss, is likewise expected to be a witness, according to a report from Yahoo! Sports.Editor’s Picks

1 Related A legislative assistant informed ESPN no other witnesses beyond Baker and Petitti have been verified since Tuesday afternoon.The NCAA and its

members have actually asked Congress to produce consistent rules for how athletes can offer their name, image and similarity (NIL) rights. They have actually likewise requested a new law codifying that college professional athletes are not employees of their schools and one that would provide the schools some protection from antitrust suits. Both those demands have the prospective to stymie existing legal fights in federal court and in front of the National Labor Relations Board.At least 5 different costs or drafts of expenses that address NIL rights have been proposed by members of Congress in the present legislative session. So far, in three years of Congress debating these concerns, no proposed bill has actually made it beyond the stages of an initial discussion.Sen. Ted Cruz, who has drafted one of the bills, said he thinks there

‘s a 60 %possibility Congress passes a college sports law. If they do act, he told ESPN it would likely remain in the next 6 to nine months.Other legislators, such as Sen. Chris Murphy, think it is much less most likely a law will pass. Murphy told ESPN he hopes the NCAA will resolve its own issues.” It doesn’t seem like they’re making much development,”Murphy stated in a September interview.”It feels to me like they’re

hoping Congress fixes this problem for them. I believe that’s extremely not likely. Congress has larger things to fret about.”A costs about NIL rights would initially need to go through the Senate Commerce Committee, but the judiciary committee would have some influence

on how it’s shaped. The judiciary committee has jurisdiction over antitrust law issues and intellectual property rights.Baker– the previous governor of Massachusetts– has actually made numerous trips to Washington, D.C., to lobby for assistance from Congress given that he took control of as the NCAA’s president in March.

He has not yet testified in a public hearing in front on Congress. Petitti took over as the Big 10’s commissioner in April and will also be testifying for the first time in his brand-new role.