The NCAA has rallied around its main priority for 2023: Get help from Congress

SAN ANTONIO — The future of the collegiate model has never been more uncertain.

So college sports leaders have decided to be clearer than ever about what they want, measures they believe are essential in order to preserve college sports as we know it. And, to them, the solution lies in Congress. Yes, the same Congress whose House of Representatives just required 15 painstaking votes to elect a speaker.

No one ever said it’d be easy to work with Congress. But it may be the only way forward, according to Baylor president Linda Livingstone, who chairs the NCAA Board of Governors, the organization’s highest governing body. Livingstone spent a great deal of time at the NCAA’s annual convention on Thursday detailing the need for Congressional help as the association faces myriad attacks from outside entities. Multiple lawsuits aimed at the economic structure of college athletics are working their way through the courts in a legal environment that appears more supportive of athletes’ rights than ever before. The National Labor Relations Board is proceeding with an unfair labor practice charge filed against USC, the Pac-12 and the NCAA in a push to categorize athletes as employees.

Livingstone repeatedly said that the NCAA needs Congress to protect the categorization of athletes so that they cannot be classified as employees.

“We feel like there’s a great sense of urgency,” Livingstone said. “It’s related in some ways to some of the potential state laws that are out there that the state legislators are looking at. It’s related to some things that could be coming out of some of the federal agencies. So, we absolutely believe that it’s urgent, it’s essential and it’s something that we really need to lean into and make progress on in this legislative session.”

She characterized the threat the NCAA is facing as “imminent.”

“Several states are right now considering legislation that would mandate a vastly changed relationship between school and its students,” Livingstone said. “Congress is really the only entity that can affirm student-athletes’ unique status. We have to ensure that Congress understands what’s at stake and motivate them to act. Second, we need a safe harbor for a certain degree of antitrust complaints. We’re not looking for nor do we actually need broad antitrust exemption; we do need the ability to make common-sense rules without limitless threats of litigation.”

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Livingstone’s loud-and-clear message came on the same day that new NCAA president Charlie Baker, the former governor of Massachusetts, was introduced to the NCAA membership. His political background and history of bipartisan success were strong selling points in the hiring process.

It is clear that Baker will be spending a lot of his time in Washington, D.C., asking for help in the areas that Livingstone outlined. He will also rely on individual athletic…