Becca Balint: 'It Does Seem Unfair' That College Athletes Aren't Paid

4 days ago

At a House Judiciary Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) spoke to witnesses about the issue of payment for student-athletes.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is from the Athens Banner Herald titled,

00:04details on what University of Georgia is paying new track coach raises for

00:08tennis coach and hoop assistants. Without objection, now recognize the gentlewoman

00:14from Vermont. Thank you, Mr. Chair. College sports are unique in that they

00:20unite and they inspire parts of our country that may not have a professional

00:24team and we saw that firsthand in Vermont as our Catamounts electrified

00:29the entire state on the way to winning the Division One 2024 Men's Soccer

00:34National Championship. Go Cats! So college sports are exciting, they inspire us, they

00:41also pose a dilemma, particularly when we talk about big-time football and

00:46basketball. Is it right that a multi-billion dollar industry does not

00:52pay its workers? And I want to appreciate that you're all here today giving your

00:58valuable time. I want to direct that question to Mr. Cooper. What's your

01:02perspective on that intense contradiction? No, it is fundamentally

01:07wrong that they do not pay their workers. And so one of the things that I want to

01:13lift up right now, Mr. Cooper, is that you're also somebody who has spoken in

01:18the past about the mental health impact on college athletes. I just want to give

01:23you a few minutes to talk about that. It's something that's very important to

01:26me. Thank you. And for me as well, that's why I got into this. When I was a student

01:31at Washington State University, our quarterback, Tyler Holinski, my

01:34classmate, died by suicide. And that is what compelled me to work with his

01:38family, to advocate for mental health. And through that, I was elected the SAC

01:44president, the Student Athlete Advisory President, at Washington State. And the

01:48more I pushed for mental health policies at the school and in the conference, the

01:52more pushback I got. And they refused to do anything or to listen to our concerns.

01:56And the reality is this business is so lucrative that there is so much money

02:02being thrown at coaches. They put that pressure on athletes and there is not,

02:07you know, the NCAA has a rule that says you can only spend 20 hours a week on

02:10sport. But a PAC-12 study found that athletes are working 50 hours a week and

02:15there's nothing stopping them from doing 60, 70. There's no accountability in the

02:21system as a whole. And so that is... It's tied up in this issue, isn't it? Yeah, so

02:27from a mental health standpoint, if you are working 50 hours a week, 60 hours a

02:32week, and you also have to go to class, it is ripe for

02:39abuse and athletes' mental health is suffering. And college athlete suicide

02:44rate has doubled over the last 20 years. And that is largely in part due to the

02:50fact that there are no enforceable safety mandates in this business. There

02:54are only guidelines and recommendations. But when a coach actually breaks the

02:59rules, there's no accountability whatsoever and there's no mechanism for

03:02athletes to hold them accountable. I really, really appreciate what you've

03:06just said here because I think it's important for us to focus on who should

03:10we be looking out for. We should be looking out for those student

03:14athletes. So thank you so much. It does seem unfair to me and many folks here

03:19in this committee hearing that young athletes put their bodies and their

03:23minds on the line for mass entertainment and yet they're not paid directly for

03:28their work. Now I've heard some good discussion here today on what is in

03:32fact a pretty complex topic. There's a lot to consider regarding NIL deals,

03:38looking at NCAA antitrust exemption, and whether we ought to consider these

03:43athletes as employees under labor law. And I know that it's important for

03:50us to ask who is best equipped to handle these complicated questions. And I would

03:55argue that the experts at the agencies that Congress has empowered to handle

04:01employment issues and enforcement of antitrust laws are the ones best equipped.

04:05So I'm talking about the National Labor Relations Board. I'm talking about the

04:09Federal Trade Commission. I'm talking about the Department of Justice. And the

04:12courts have a role here too. As we've heard, we may have a settlement this year

04:17providing for the payment of college athletes. Now it would be great for

04:22Americans if we had these institutions ready to help us sort out these issues,

04:27but we don't because we have an administration right now who is

04:31partnering with Elon Musk to dismantle some of these agencies. We should be

04:37talking about whether we owe college athletes additional compensation, but we

04:42should also be talking about the agencies that the Trump administration

04:46is illegally dismantling. The ones that Congress has empowered to solve problems

04:52like college athlete compensation. We don't have an independent board in

04:57charge of determining whether these athletes can collectively bargain. Why

05:01not? Because the president illegally fired a board member and the entire

05:05board is now deadlocked. At the FTC, we've seen antitrust division staff

05:10terminated and for some odd reason they're forced to move to the USAID

05:14building. And that agency is also deadlocked and in chaos because of this

05:19administration's actions. I don't even have enough time because I see I'm

05:22running short here on the abuses happening at the Department of Justice.

05:26My point is this, let's keep the main thing the main thing. We have agencies

05:31that can help us to look at these complex issues and right now we are not

05:37funding those agencies to do their jobs and I yield back. Thank you.

05:41Gentlewoman yields back. Gentleman from Virginia is now recognized for five

05:46minutes. I thank the chairman for holding this hearing. Thank our witnesses for

05:49being here as well. I want to echo what the gentlelady said. This is about the

05:54the student athletes.

Becca Balint: 'It Does Seem Unfair' That College Athletes Aren't Paid

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