Several US Senators To Introduce 'Athletes Bill of Rights'

On NIL legislation, Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley has said "we're on the cutting edge of that"

Change is coming for the NCAA's amateur model.

And according to SI's Ross Dellenger, the gears are already turning in a congressional effort to spur drastic reform in college sports.

Click here to access Dellenger's full article

Dellenger reports that Sen. Cory Booker, a former Stanford football player, hopes to juxtapose this bill with NIL legislation to completely change the game across collegiate athletics. 

“For them to get the cooperation from us, they’re going to have to change some of their practices,” said Booker. “The NCAA feels urgency and needs to get federal cooperation. I’m going to make sure that we also are able to change NCAA practices that undermine the students’ education, well-being and basic First Amendment rights.”

Back in late April, Oklahoma head coach Riley fielded questions about pending NIL legislation and asserted that the Sooners are "on the cutting edge of that." In fact, Riley and his creative staff have already worked to begin developing personalized brands for each of their incoming football recruits. 

“We’ve also worked hard to educate our guys about it,” Riley said. “And then the thing for us has been, how do we educate them about their brand so they can maximize that, they can understand what it means, the ways they need to represent themselves, how important that is — but also do it within the team concept.

“You know, the individual stuff is great, but we’ve tried to educate our guys about, ‘If your brand is about the things you do well, (it’s) also about how well you work with others and what a team-first guy you are. What company, what entity anywhere in the world wouldn’t be attracted to that?”

Reportedly, Democratic senators Booker, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders are among the top proponents of the Athletes' Bill of Rights. 

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