By Ira Gorawara
NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson sharply criticized the Protect College Sports Act during an appearance on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” on Tuesday evening, rejecting the premise that college sports needs congressional intervention and accusing conferences of seeking greater control over athletes at a time players are gaining more financial power.
“There’s no instability in the game,” Johnson said. “It’s just greed by the conferences.”
Johnson’s appearance came three days after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a co-author of the PCSA, received nearly 10 minutes on ESPN’s “College GameDay” ahead of Ohio State-Texas in Austin to advocate for the legislation. Cruz appeared alone with host Rece Davis, without an opponent of the legislation participating in the discussion. The NAACP subsequently posted on X asking ESPN to bring Johnson onto this week’s “College GameDay” in Oxford, Miss., to present its opposition. ESPN instead booked him for Tuesday’s 6 p.m. ET edition of “SportsCenter.”
Minutes after Johnson’s appearance, the bill cleared its first major hurdle on the Senate floor. Senators voted 74-24 to invoke cloture and begin consideration of the legislation, a significant step toward a final Senate vote, which could come next week if the process continues to advance.
Johnson focused much of his interview on what he sees as missing from that federal framework: a direct voice for athletes and a right to collectively bargain.
“What’s really at stake here is students’ ability to collectively bargain,” Johnson said. “If this was student centered, students and players should have been at the table, and they were not at the table.”
Asked about state laws that restrict collective bargaining by college athletes, Johnson said Congress itself could establish such a right nationally.
“Students should be able to collectively bargain as a federal right,” he said. “If you’re going to have federal legislation to govern college sports, then the federal law would preside. So this is not about state law.”
The bipartisan PCSA, sponsored by Cruz and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), would establish national rules governing athlete compensation, transfers, eligibility and recruiting while granting the NCAA and conferences limited antitrust protection to enforce certain rules. As noted, it does not establish collective bargaining rights. Also, unlike some previous congressional proposals, it does not declare college athletes to be nonemployees.
The legislation has the support of the NCAA and all four power conferences, among numerous other college sports organizations. It advanced from the Senate Commerce Committee by a 19-9 bipartisan vote in June. After further negotiations produced changes that won the backing of the Big Ten and SEC, revised bill text was released Aug. 4.
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