II. Key Takeaways

1. Since the Board of Regents decision in 1984, the NCAA has been beholden to Power 5 football interests.

2. The Power 5 wields regulatory authority behind the scenes and avoids public accountability.

3. The Power 5 have dictated the course of congressional engagement from the very beginning in 2019.

4. From the beginning of the congressional debate, the Power 5 have been guided by the best lawyers, lobbyists, and public relations experts in the business.

5. The Power 5 and NCAA successfully commandeered the NIL debate and framed it around their interests rather than athletes’ interests.

6. In the four-year congressional debate ostensibly over “NIL compensation,” NCAA and Power 5 lobbyists have successfully avoided any discussion of the root causes of the current regulatory dysfunction.

7. The Power 5 have not wavered on their insistence that Congress eliminate external regulatory threats through preemption, antitrust immunity, and a federal declaration that athletes cannot be employees of their universities. 

8. Athletes have been systematically excluded from discussions on the future of college sports.