The legislation’s principal shortcomings include: It does not restore the primacy of education as the governing purpose of intercollegiate athletics. It more than doubles the “pay-for-play” pro sports model of the NCAA vs. House settlement, increasing the cost of college athletics programs without expenditure restraints knowing that: (i) 93% of colleges and universities are still not complying with … Read more
Statement on the U.S. Senate’s proposed amendments to the proposed S4668, the Protect College Sports Act of 2026 WESTPORT, CT — August 6, 2026 — The Drake Group applauds the United States Senate for recognizing the need for comprehensive federal legislation governing intercollegiate athletics. The legislation contains numerous provisions that provide important protections for college-athletes, including enhanced medical … Read more
On June 17, 2026, Kassandra Ramsey, President of The Drake Group transmitted a Drake Group report on the Protect College Sports Act and recommendations to improve the bill in a letter sent to Senators Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell, Chair and Ranking Member respectively, of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation. Ramsey applauded the leadership … Read more
Since June, the NCAA has been implementing policies and procedures to carry out the recently approved House v. NCAA settlement. Among other key provisions, the settlement permits—though practically requires—most Power 5 institutions and allows other Division I members to provide their college athletes with up to $20.5 million in cash annually as benefits in addition to existing scholarships … Read more
In April 2024, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report, “College Athletics: Education Should Improve Its Title IX Enforcement Efforts.” The GAO found that 93 percent of all intercollegiate athletic programs were not offering athletics opportunities to females proportional to their percentage in the full-time undergraduate student body. The overall athletic participation rate … Read more
On February 7, 2024, National Girls and Women in Sports Day, U.S. Senator Christopher Murphy (CT-D) and U.S. Representative Alma Adams (NC-12-D) introduced the Fair Play for Women Act in the 118th Congress. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Representatives Lori Trahan (D-MS-03) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR-1) co-sponsored the legislation. Donna A. … Read more
On December 5, 2023, NCAA President Baker proposed a new Division I tier in which schools would be required to pay at least 50 percent of their male and female athletes a minimum of $30,000 annually and have no limits on how much schools could pay individual athletes for use of their NILs. Pundits suggest … Read more
The Drake Group believes that the current NIL chaos can be relieved by DOE/OCR clearly and precisely warning institutions, their conferences and national governance organizations of their obligations under existing Title IX requirements, explaining how those requirements apply to these new NIL-related activities, and warning that actions by “collectives” will be attributed to the universities when appropriate. The purpose of … Read more
The Drake Group strongly endorses the Fair Play for Women Act and applauds Representative Adams and Senator Murphy for sponsoring the bill. The Act would strengthen existing statutes that require colleges and universities to publicly report data demonstrating their compliance with the athletics provisions of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and, for … Read more
The Drake Group has established a new non-profit organization under the fiscal 501(c)(3) sponsorship of the Players Philanthropy Fund – THE DRAKE GROUP EDUCATION FUND. Andrew Zimbalist, Drake President explained, “Doing so will enable two important things to happen. First, The Drake Group will be better positioned to focus on its priority mission of influencing … Read more