As much as politics can divide, sports can unite. That much was evident at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on college athletes’ ability to make endorsement deals.
Republicans and Democrats alike agreed that there needs to be a national standard governing college athletes’ ability to make money off their name, image and likeness. But coming up with a set of standards to replace the patchwork of state laws that has cropped up in the last few years will be difficult — it would have to cover situations as disparate as an NFL-bound quarterback at the University of Alabama with a rugger at Bryn Mawr College.
While most issues in Congress fall under predictable party lines, members were more interested in touting where they went to school than establishing a place on the ideological spectrum at Wednesday’s Innovation, Data, and Commerce hearing.
