Sen. Ted Cruz to hold NIL roundtable, Nick Saban, Cavinder Twins among guests

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz is diving back into the future of college sports, this time with plans for a roundtable that will include former Alabama head coach Nick Saban and the Cavinder Twins.

Cruz’s office announced Friday plans for a NIL roundtable in Washington, D.C., scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday. According to a press release, the roundtable will be focused on, “the urgent need for Congress to find consensus and pass bipartisan legislation to codify name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights for student-athletes.”

The Republican senator from Texas circulated a discussion draft in July that would ensure athletes are not employees and includes a state law preemption. The bill would bar states from enacting laws on compensation, employment status, athlete eligibility or NIL.

The full list of guests includes:

• U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.)
• Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban
• ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips
• NIL stars Haley Cavinder and Hanna Cavinder
• Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne
• The Collective Association president Russell White
• NIL attorney Darren Heitner

A ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Cruz has the position and political clout to push through legislation. But deeming athletes not employees could hold up the bill’s process.

The roundtable is set for the same day the subcommittee of the House Education and the Workforce Committee has scheduled a legislative hearing titled “Safeguarding student-athletes from NLRB misclassification.” The subcommittees on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions and Higher Education and Workforce Development will hold the hearing, scheduled for 10:15 a.m. ET.

The wave of hearings and roundtables come on the heels of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team voting 13-2 on Tuesday to form a union. While it is a historic day, the Big Green will face a lengthy appeal process. In addition to the Dartmouth case, the college sports employment train continues to barrel down multiple tracks.

Nick Saban will share NIL views

Saban retired in January, sending a shockwave across the college football landscape. After winning six national championships in 17 seasons with the Crimson Tide and producing 123 NFL draft, he decided to take a step back.

Since NIL became permitted in college sports in the summer of 2021, Saban has been outspoken. Speaking with ESPN earlier this week, he emphasized that he wants to be a part of the solution to problems currently facing college sports.

He’ll have his chance Tuesday to share his thoughts with Cruz and multiple senators.

“I want to be clear that wasn’t the reason, but some of those events certainly contributed,” Saban told ESPN about the role of NIL in his retirement. “I was really disappointed in the way that the players acted after the game. You gotta win with class. You gotta lose with class. We had our opportunities to win the game and we didn’t do it, and then showing your ass and being frustrated and throwing helmets and doing that stuff … That’s not who we are and what we’ve promoted in our program.”  

Where does NCAA’s push for NIL reform stand?

Since Charlie Baker took over his post as NCAA president over a year ago, he’s prioritized lobbying Congress to enact NIL guardrails. Legal pressures have continued to stack up against the governing body over the past year.

Along with Dartmouth’s decision to form a union, an NLRB trial in Los Angeles alleging USC, the Pac-12 Conference and the NCAA are joint employers of USC’s football and men’s and women’s basketball players is playing out.

Plus, the Johnson v. NCAA lawsuit is asking that athletes be deemed employees subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act. That requires covered employees to be paid minimum wage and overtime pay, much like non-athletes at colleges who participate in work-study programs.

The hearing that coincides on the same day as Cruz’s roundtable discussion is the 12th focused on college sports since 2020. No legislation has made it to a vote. With the upcoming Presidential election expected to dominate the news cycle, chances are slim that the NCAA will find its relief on Capitol Hill in the short term.