B. David Ridpath

Good morning @NCAA, @theswac, @MEACSports. The Protect College Sports Act is now officially and legislatively dead. Your only remaining option is to seek face-to-face bargaining with the parties that are directly impacted by your previously unchecked authority. Student-athletes must have a property interest in their athletic ability/eligibility which will afford them due process protection. Modify your procedures for investigation of member institutions, prospective student-athletes, coaches and “interested parties”. Voluntarily commit to Title IX compliance. Voluntarily commit to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act; the 1998 consent decree is meaningless because you ignored it one day after it was signed, Voluntarily submit to substantive “collective bargaining” that recognizes the class of student-athletes that generate wealth in collegiate sports: football, basketball and women’s basketball players. Thirty years ago, you could have agreed to $1,500.00/month stipends that would have satisfied everyone (at the time). However, you aggressively enforced Bylaw 12 - Amateurism and suspended student-athletes for accepting financial assistance that they needed to survive, ruined the careers of coaches in the Committee on Infractions without affording them due process protection, punished student-athletes for mindless amateurism violations by suspending them for meaningless “violations” and punished member institutions that stood up for their coaches and athletes. Stop violating the rights of international student-athletes. Following yesterday’s mid-term results and your Protect College Sports Act going down the drain, I sincerely hope that everyone (especially my friends) in @NCAA headquarters will reevaluate your hostile, paternalistic treatment of student-athletes and have a nice day. To the @theswac and @MEACSports, shame on you for turning your backs on the interests of African American student-athletes and siding with people that don’t give a damn about you. Maybe, just maybe college sports needs to be “protected” from forces in @NCAA headquarters not from student-athletes asking for legal rights, recognition of their economic rights and constitutional protection.