During a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing before the congressional recess, Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) questioned CIAA Commissioner Jacqui McWilliams-Parker about student athlete unionization.
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00:00I thank the gentleman and I recognize a gentlelady from Michigan, Ms. McLean.
00:04Thank you Mr. Chairman and thank you all for being here today.
00:08Really what I want to talk about is the difference between employment status and
00:13non-employment status for the athletes. So if you could start and Ms. Wynn I'll
00:21start with you. What is the advantage of making student athletes employees versus
00:30non-employees or disadvantage from your perspective? From my perspective I
00:37think that employment status yields more disadvantages than they do advantages
00:43because the majority of us student athletes and I'm here representing the
00:47female student athletes and Olympic sports as well and I think that employment
00:53status it will it will shift the freedom for student athletes to explore
00:59academic interests transfer capabilities or just playing for the love of the game
01:05and replace that with legal contracts performance pressures financial
01:10decisions and I know myself I signed my NLI at 16 years old and so I was very
01:19young and I started my freshman year as a 17 year old student so opening those
01:24conversations even to minors I feel like that is that's a dangerous future in my
01:31opinion. Okay I mean yesterday in your order to protect the balance right I
01:36introduced the protect protecting student athletes economic freedom act which
01:42clarifies that a student athlete is not an employee of a college conference or
01:49other associations. Ms. McWilliams Parker how would you or excuse me how would this is
01:56kind of awkward but ununionization of student athletes impact the school's
02:02ability to support their students and academic programs? Yeah thank you for that
02:07question I think about the opportunity to continue to give them scholarships you
02:13know even the cost of the academics for support the regular mental health
02:19services that we have the training support that is needed the media support
02:24could career development success I mean all of those things are going to be
02:28possibly compromised because of the cost associated with it from that
02:33department athletics department I mean I shared earlier all our departments are
02:38already operating in a deficit so the more strain that we put on
02:42financially to provide those resources on top of additional resources there would
02:47be some concern. But what do you say to the to the folks that say but we have to
02:52protect these athletes? I don't know why we don't think we're not
02:56protecting them already I work in college athletics my job every day is to
03:00protect student athletes give them the best opportunity to participate in
03:04championships and make sure that we have the staffing and the support they
03:07need we're talking about different subsets of institutions we've got private we've
03:12got public we've got larger we got smaller we got bigger resources and we've got
03:16limited resources I'm in limited resources and so we need to protect those
03:21limited resources institutions by making sure we can sustain opportunities for
03:25students like Miss Wynn who come to some of our schools. So if I'm
03:29understanding it correctly you think as a student athlete or a former student
03:34athlete being an employee is not a good thing and as an administrator you also
03:43agree with that? Absolutely I mean we're protecting the Olympic sports we're
03:48protecting Title IX and Title IX this is not about women it's also about our men
03:53we're trying to protect the disparity of the playing field I mean there's a lot of
03:58implications here on paying student-athletes. So you have you
04:02actually have some trust in people you have some trust in in the athletes you
04:07have some trust in each other you don't need Big Brother in essence to come in
04:11and regulate everything. Despite what everybody says I am part of the NCAA I am
04:17the NCAA I'm one of the administrators that sits around the table like you all do
04:22to make policies and processes and procedures so that our institutions and
04:26student-athletes can have that experience. Our student-athletes around the
04:30table we have leadership around the table and should we be getting better
04:34absolutely are we getting better absolutely are these conversations
04:38helpful to help us guide in the path of getting better absolutely. So just just to
04:43be clear and I'm being a little sarcastic which I don't mean mean to be but
04:47you have the athletes who participate you have the administrators you mean you
04:52actually collaborate to find out what the best course of action is and you guys are
05:00can do that right now. Absolutely we are doing it. That's great good for you I
05:05applaud you. Thank you. I mean I think we need to get back into having a little bit
05:09of faith into our people. Thank you I know I'm over time Mr. Chairman I yield back thank
05:15you all.