Steve Sarkisian wants legislation from Congress for college sports

With a decision looming on the approval of a massive NCAA settlement, Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian felt almost an obligation to make a quick trip to Washington D.C. last week and emphasize the need for what he calls “the guardrails” on the rapid professionalism of college athletics.

“It’s something for me that is important,” Sarkisian said Monday during his first meeting with the media since his trip to Congress April 9.  “I love being a college football coach. I love watching these guys come in, develop, grow, have an experience, fail, have some success, grow some more, fail again and grow some more. I don’t think any of us, our student-athletes included, I don’t think any of them want to be employees, right? They don’t want to feel like an employee. They want to feel like a student-athlete.”

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Sarkisian joined Texas volleyball coach Jerritt Elliott, football player DeAndre Moore Jr. and volleyball player Emma Halter on the trip as part of a lobbying effort by the SEC and other power conferences addressed to Congressional members concerning the impending approval of at least $2 billion to student-athletes in the NCAA.

U.S. Judge Claudia Wilken held a final hearing April 7 on the settlement of a $2.8 billion class-action antitrust lawsuit filed by athletes against the NCAA and its largest conferences, and she must give full approval before the terms can go into effect as soon as July 1. The settlement would impact virtually all aspects of the business of college athletics, including antitrust protection, standardizing rules nationwide for name, image and likeness (NIL) payments, the transfer portal, scholarship limits and whether college…

Source link : https://www.statesman.com/story/sports/college/longhorns/football/2025/04/15/steve-sarkisian-ncaa-house-settlement-guardrails-college-athletics/83079833007/

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Publish date : 2025-04-15 16:01:00

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