The Drake Group Comments on the Proposed College Athlete Protection Agreement

 

The Drake Group, an organization whose mission is to defend academic integrity in higher education, recognizes as laudable the efforts of the National Collegiate Players Association and Executive Director Ramogi Huma to create the College Athlete Protection Agreement. The current National Letter of Intent (NLI) and financial aid agreement are too one sided in favor of the institution and powerful, highly paid coaches. The educational and athletic rights of the athlete are rarely considered as long as we get our entertainment and games. The CAP agreement can be a way to put the athletes on a level playing field with a better bargaining position to insure they are getting the most out of their educational and athletic experience. After all, this is what college athletics is supposed to be about.
The Drake Group supports detailed written agreements between the institution and college athletes with regard to athletic scholarships or other benefits. We believe college athletes need to be fully informed of benefits provided as well as expenses not covered by the institution,   especially with regard to athletic-injury insurance and medical expenses that exceed the normal two-year limit of such policies.  Further, we believe that the rights of college athletes to transfer to another institution without an athletic eligibility penalty, among other rights, should be documented in such an agreement. However, care must be taken to ensure that the benefits and values proposed in this sample agreement violate neither NCAA rules nor federal Title IX provisions. The Drake Group has not yet evaluated the proposed agreement with regard to these cautions.