President Biden talks NIL, revenue sharing with college football stakeholders

President Joe Biden met with former college football players and advocates at the White House on Wednesday to discuss varying issues facing the sport, including athletes’ health and the NIL Era.

It’s a 180-degree pivot from where college sports has sat on Capitol Hill over the last six months. Since Charlie Baker took over as the NCAA’s president this spring, he’s made multiple trips to Washington, D.C., to lobby lawmakers for NIL reform. He even sat on a legislative hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee last month.

But the NCAA did not have a presence at Wednesday’s two-hour roundtable, where Biden made an appearance. A White House official told the media pool that the President dropped by the meeting for roughly 40 minutes, wanting to learn more about why athletes “deserve consistent safety standards, to have a voice, and to benefit from the revenue they produce.”

Among the invitees to meet with White House officials: former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck; ESPN college football analyst Rod Gilmore; ESPN anchor Kevin Negandhi; ESPN’s Desmond Howard; College Football Playoff Association leadership committee member Jordan Meachum; and Keith Marshall, co-founder of the Players’ Lounge and a former Georgia star running back.

According to a pool report, former LSU star, Super Bowl champion and ESPN contributor Ryan Clark was also involved. There were no female athletes on the list of invitees, which also did not include a current college athlete.

Topics discussed included revenue sharing, the state of NIL, Title IX and safety standards. According to Meachum, the roundtable began in the Roosevelt Room before making its way to the Oval Office, where Biden ultimately led the group through a tour of the cabinet room.

“(President Biden) talked about the advancement of player rights, college athletes in general, but specifically to college football rights, and what they go through with medical coverage down the road as well,” Negandhi said to reporters after the roundtable. “I think the President was curious about, ‘Hey, the safety of the sport, these athletes moving forward and how does NIL look after the last couple of years.'”

President Biden focused NIL, athletes’ rights

According to multiple sources who attended the event, the discussion was more of a fact-finding mission than rolling out any legislation or executive orders in the imminent future. One of the Biden Administration’s appointees includes National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, who issued a memorandum in September 2021 saying that she views college athletes as employees of their schools under the National Labor Relations Act.

The NLRB has taken center stage this week, as the board’s virtual hearing began this week, weighing the unfair labor practice charges against the NCAA, Pac-12 and USC. And last Friday, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken granted class-action status for the three remaining damages classes in the landmark House v. NCAA antitrust case.

“The overall gist of the conversation was, really, to discuss the rights of college athletes as we move into a new era of college sports,” Marshall said on The Paul Finebaum Show. “There were really two main categories that we discussed, and I’m sure many people are not surprised by the first being NIL. They really were just interested in getting perspective of what that looks like, and they wanted to hear from us. What do we think is going well? What do we think could be improved upon and what direction should the industry move going forward?

“The second category where we spent a little bit more time talking was about the health and safety of student-athletes, and it was really, how do we protect these student-athletes? How do we provide them the right resources, not only while they’re in school, but now that we’re moving more to a free market model, is there an opportunity to get some benefits that exist way after their playing days are over?”

College Football Players Association excited by visit

One of the biggest winners of the day was the College Football Players Association.

Speaking with On3 after his day at the White House, Meachum was encouraged about where the association is heading. Multiple stakeholders who participated in the roundtable were excited to learn more about the CFBPA and encouraged about the work that is being done.

A former college football player at Sacred Heart University, Meachum said the focus of the roundtable was on health and safety and revenue sharing. NIL came up at times but wasn’t the primary conversation topic. President Bident played an active role, fairly versed in the discussion points.

CFBPA first made headlines when it attempted to organize a chapter at Penn State in the summer of 2022, which was shot down by former Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren. It’s continued to work on college campuses and called for a boycott of EA Sports College Football this summer.

“One-hundred percent, they were on board and understood revenue sharing needs to happen and going to happen because of conference realignment,” he said of the roundtable. “They travel through four different time zones now for these athletes. There needs to be some form of revenue share, right? And essentially, let’s say women’s Olympic does not need to go anywhere. It can be paid for.

“But with revenue share, we’re specifically talking about the new money coming in – the $1.4 billion coming. Conference realignment can mean some dollars go to the athletes.”

What does this mean for NCAA’s NIL fight?

Ten Congressional hearings on NIL and college sports have been held since 2020, with the most recent coming in early October. The hearing was highlighted by NCAA president Baker, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick all describing how athletes earning employee status would send college athletics into chaos.

Sen. Joe Manchin introduced the Pass Act with Sen. Tommy Tuberville this summer. If enacted, it would prohibit athletes from entering the transfer portal during their first three years of eligibility (with some exceptions). Athletes would have to conform to a uniform standard contract, too. Another bill draft introduced this summer by Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) would include health care for athletes and protect women’s sports, in addition to providing NIL regulations.

That’s just a small tasting of the bills that have been introduced. Each includes starkly different legislation. Democrats and Republicans cannot agree, either. Democrats believe in an expansive bill that would include healthcare and revenue sharing. Republicans want a narrow piece of legislation that in some cases would codify athletes are not university employees. 

Of note: Baker said he’s talked with some 1,000 athletes since assuming his role in March and not one said they were in favor of an employee model. However, between Oct. 22 and 27, Bill Carter of Student-Athlete Insights polled just under 1,100 current student-athletes – 73% said they would be in favor of employee status.

The White House’s endgame remains unclear.

“I can’t speak for their end game,” Negandhi said. “I think it was trying to get an understanding of why there is a concern with former players right now about representation, more than anything else again. Like when you look at revenue sharing, especially NIL in a new landscape the last few years, and then health is a huge concern.”