WASHINGTON _ The NCAA is engaged in a full-court press on Capitol Hill to squelch new congressional efforts to allow student-athletes to make money off their name, image and likeness.
NCAA officials have been meeting with key lawmakers in recent weeks, making it clear the organization wants the legislation introduced earlier this month by Rep. Mark Walker, a North Carolina Republican, to go nowhere.
The pressure is likely to work, just as it does year after year when Congress tries to change how college athletics operate.
The NCAA, which provides governance and conducts championships for more than 1,100 college and university athletic programs, also has a powerful force helping argue on its behalf _ its member schools.
Rep. Donna Shalala, a Florida Democrat, was president of the University of Miami and chancellor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, two major players in college athletics. She said when the NCAA wants to exert its influence, it does so through member institutions.
"If you look at where the great universities are in this country, in what states, it's the presidents that pick up the phone and call their senators," said Shalala, who opposes Walker's bill. "The politics of athletics in this country is not red or blue _ it's conferences."
Walker's initiatives come as several court cases, including one with a ruling this month, have held that the NCAA can tie payments to student-athletes to educational experience.
To add momentum to the push for Walker's bill, Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, released a report Thursday morning, highlighting "how everyone is getting rich off college sports _ except the players." Murphy called on the NCAA to find a way to compensate student-athletes. CBS and Turner Sports are in the middle of a 22-year, $19.6 billion contract to broadcast the men's basketball tournament.
The NCAA is fighting back. It spent $240,000 last year for the services of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as part of its overall $400,000 lobbying effort on other legislation.
In the same week Walker introduced his bill, Marc Lampkin, managing partner of Brownstein Hyatt's Washington office, arranged a meeting between Walker and Donald Remy, the NCAA's executive vice president of law, policy and governance and its chief legal officer.
Lampkin was previously a top adviser to former House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, and deputy campaign manager for President George W. Bush.
Lobbyists have also been in touch with other key lawmakers, such as Rep. Roger Williams, a Texas Republican who opposes the bill and Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee.
So far, the push has been effective. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, second-ranking Democrat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said "there's been no serious discussion of the issue" among panel members.
Walker's not surprised.
"The NCAA has been able to do things the way they've wanted to do things for so long without any repercussions or pushback that they kind of got entrenched into their way of thinking on this," Walker said. "I think they're a little bit surprised that this is starting to catch a little bit of steam."
The NCAA's lobbying spending has been fairly consistent in each of the last four years. In 2018 it was tied for third for sports lobbying spending with the group that runs the Ultimate Fighting Championship, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The National Football League spent $1.64 million on lobbying last year. The Major League Baseball commissioner's office spent $1.3 million.
Those figures remain far behind Washington's biggest lobbying spenders. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce last year spent $95 million, while the National Association of Realtors spent about $73 million, according to center data.
Brownstein Hyatt, the NCAA's lobbyist, had $30.9 million in lobbying revenue last year, second only to the Akin, Gump firm. Twelve of the lobbyists were listed as representing the NCAA, and all but one is a former congressional staffer.
Colleges and universities across the country also spend big sums on lobbying in Washington for a wide variety of initiatives, most involving issues other than sports.
The University of California spent more than $1 million overall on lobbying last year and Duke University spent $450,000. The University of North Carolina System, $350,000; Wake Forest University, $600,000; University of Kentucky, $331,000; Kansas State University, $493,000 and University of Florida, $340,000. All data were compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
There are no details on precisely how the money was spent, and neither the NCAA nor Brownstein Hyatt would comment.
Soon after Walker's bill was introduced, the NCAA released a statement.
"This bill is unnecessary and may benefit only a small number of student-athletes and cause unintended consequences and negatively impact opportunities for all other college athletes," it said.
"This is critical to keep in mind because the NCAA offers a unique model that creates opportunities for academic and athletic achievement to nearly 500,000 student-athletes across 24 sports each year."
The NCAA has made changes in recent years to expand the benefits student-athletes can access, including stipends that cover the full cost of attendance. But players cannot endorse products, make money off their name, image and likeness or be paid by the school or outside entities for their talents.
The sports bloc has been so effective for so long that legislation affecting college athletics rarely even gets a vote from congressional committees. Four years ago, Rep. Charlie Dent, a Pennsylvania Republican, led a group of GOP and Democratic House members that pushed legislation to curb what it saw as controversial NCAA practices.
It would have required mandatory annual concussion testing for students involved in contact or collision sports. It also would standardize how NCAA members dealt with student and school infractions. The bill didn't even get a hearing.
