Cory Booker opposes reforming the insane cash grab in college sports despite the fact its ravaging this top school in New Jersey
New Jersey’s flagship public university is bleeding red ink because of the insane money grab that has engulfed the business of college sports – yet the state’s senior senator in Washington is strangely at odds with legislation to reform the system, On The Money has learned.US Sen.Cory Booker (D-NJ) should have unique insight into the college sports money grab and how it’s decimating good schools like Rutgers.
A former college athlete himself (he played tight end on Stanford University’s football team), Booker has for years advocated protections for student athletes. Yet Booker claims that the reforms codified in a bipartisan bill introduced by Sens.Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) are akin to relegating college athletes to the status of indentured servants.
That’s even though proposals in the bill merely codify a sensible revenue sharing deal previously reached between students and universities, plus a $22 million per year endorsement cap for colleges. But that’s before some savvy sports agents and lawyers more recently exploited a loophole that allowed the cap to be easily circumvented.As a result, the so-called “Name Image and Likeness” system, which allows student athletes to make money off of endorsements, now showers a very small percentage of student athletes (mainly in football and basketball) with big money, while it siphons resources away from the vast majority of other sports.Academic pursuits are also getting short shrift as schools vie for talent with lucrative NIL endorsement deals.
The most prized athletes can change schools several times during their college career, and remain in school for more than four years.The money is so good, there’s no need to turn pro.So why is Booker against this reform? When you peel back his rhetoric, it appears the senator is most obsessed with granting college athletes the ability to collectively bargain, which progressives view as a constitutional right.
The thing is, collectiv...