College football, in the traditional sense, is one of the many things that Americans turn to to escape the pressures of everyday life.
The Monday-Friday grind, combined with the stresses of family life, social issues, and, in 2024, a weighty presidential election, are too readily available to consume our thoughts. However, on fall Saturday mornings, we still have the privilege of waking up and tuning in for a full day of college football.
It’s not technically part of the description of the “American Dream,” but it might as well be for many folks. With that being said, there are some major changes in the sport that have changed the way that many people view the game.
Amateurism in college athletics is dead, as the practice of paying athletes has become part of the sport. Unfortunately, the NCAA’s mishandling of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) during its infancy has allowed a great opportunity for college athletes to turn into a lawless form of the NFL’s free agency.
The sport is still drawing record viewers — which isn’t likely to change — but there are certainly some issues with college football that die-hard fans agree will need to change if it hopes to survive it’s evolving state.
However, college football’s decision-makers will quite literally need an act of Congress for those changes to come. As Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger points out, that’s why the results of Tuesday’s election are vitally important for college football.
With Donald Trump winning the 47th presidency, a Republican victory in the Senate, a likely Republican victory in the House of Representatives, and a 6:3 Republican majority in the Supreme Court, a single party is on the verge of having majority control of all three branches of government.
While issues like foreign policy, the economy, and domestic issues will certainly come first, college football’s most prominent issues could finally have a resolution on the horizon.
“Collegiate athletic policies — like so many issues — are hanging in the balance of the Tuesday elections,” says Julie Sommer, executive director of the Drake Group, per Dellenger.
According to Dellenger’s pre-election story, the results of this race could be radically important for the federal policies needed in college athletics on at least three fronts:
“(1) comprehensive congressional college sports legislation; (2) the interpretation and enforcement of Title IX as it relates to athlete revenue sharing; and (3) the debate over college athletes as employees.”
Legislation, perhaps the greatest of the three issues, now has a clearer path to resolution as the election results become clearer.
NCAA executives and conference administrators have been visiting Capitol Hill for half a decade trying to get a congressional bill passed that would allow the NCAA to enforce its rules, many of which have been deemed unfair.
In their most recent attempt, decision-makers urged lawmakers to pass a bill that “(1) prohibits college athletes from becoming employees and (2) codifies the NCAA’s settlement of the House antitrust lawsuit, which would likely entail the granting of a limited antitrust exemption.”
To this point, they’ve gotten essentially nowhere as the bill has reached a stalemate caused by disagreements between Democrats and Republicans.
According to Dellenger’s report, Sommer equates this to differing perspectives from either party: “Republicans want to limit employment status and give protection to the NCAA and power leagues to grant them oversight and regulation; Democrats emphasize more rights of athletes, express an openness (some of them) to employee protections as well as health, educational access and gender equity rights.”
Before Tuesday’s results came in, Tom McMillen, a former U.S. congressman and mainstay in the fight to get a college sports bill passed, didn’t see a path to the Republicans winning in a clean sweep, which would cause the issue to remain difficult to resolve.
“If Republicans take the Senate and Democrats take the House, it’s going to be difficult to get stuff done,” said McMillen. “The more likely scenario is a split government and it’s going to require hard work to get a compromise done. I don’t see a clean sweep. If Republicans have a clean sweep, they could get all the agenda done.”
However, with it appearing that Republicans are on the verge of getting both the House and the Senate, there wouldn’t be a divided Congress, and that could be the difference needed.
While the “Red Wave” doesn’t provide an instant fix for all of the issues that college football, it does appear to at least provide a clearer path to some sort of resolution. Now, if President Trump decides to eliminate the Department of Education (which seems highly unlikely), we would have a whole new can of worms to deal with, but that’s an issue for another time.
