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Washington, D.C. (March 11, 2025)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, delivered opening remarks at the Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust hearing examining antitrust law and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Below are Ranking Member Raskin’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at today’s subcommittee hearing.

WATCH Ranking Member Raskin’s opening statement.

Ranking Member Jamie Raskin
Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government
Hearing on “Antitrust Law and the NCAA: Examining the Current Climate”
March 11, 2025

Mr. Chairman, the Maryland Terrapins are on a roll. The men’s basketball team is piling up win after win, including in their Saturday night game against Northwestern. And our women’s team made it to the Big Ten quarterfinals. Thanks to recent changes, these highly competitive basketball players can get some tangible benefits from their extremely lucrative play and work by monetizing their personal publicity rights. Players can now use name, image, and likeness revenue to invest in themselves, their families, and their communities. 

But today we’re talking about whether we should give further power to the NCAA, a nominally non-profit organization that collects hundreds of millions of dollars a year based on the athletic performance of their students. They want federal statutory protections to enable them to roll back the positive changes that have been made for students, to gain immunity from the consequences of breaking the law, and to permanently prevent players from having a seat at the table.

The NCAA has repeatedly put institutional profits over players’ health and safety, academic achievement, and economic freedom. The NCAA is a repeat offender of our antitrust laws and has lobbied for decades to be wholly exempt from Title IX and law enforcement. The NCAA has had a monopoly on college sports and the revenue they generate for decades—and has consistently failed to make needed changes to help the student-players without outside pressure. 

Consider the situation of college women basketball players. 

The NCAA says that academics is a key part of the college athlete experience, and yet women basketball players complain that their travel schedule has meant they can go a month without attending any of their courses in person. 

Despite claiming to care about athletes, the NCAA has allowed women basketball players to be pressured to play through injury. 

Despite claiming to care about the balance between sports and academic achievement, the NCAA has allowed schools to refuse to recognize course credits for transfer students.

Despite claiming to care about the “student” side of the college athlete’s life, the NCAA allows schools to prevent athletes from choosing the major they want if it conflicts with practice and travel schedules. 

Our Division I women basketball players are commonly required to practice and play an average of 50 hours per week, and yet, for many, their low stipend means that they are paid less than 10 dollars per hour and cannot afford rent.  

Women college basketball players make less on their name, image, and likeness than their male counterparts. The Trump Administration recently retracted guidance that would have ensured personal publicity opportunities were distributed fairly among athletes. 

The NCAA and the conference they work with want us to give them a law that would roll back recent positive changes for players, give the NCAA and conference immunity from the laws they repeatedly break, and keep the players voiceless and powerless forever.

We have consistently undervalued and underinvested in women’s sports. But now that women’s college basketball is clearly a profitable business for schools, conferences, and the NCAA, it is high time that women players get a seat at the table. 

But a collection of 120 Division I basketball players has been rejected by the commissioners of the Big Ten and the SEC. These players are not unionizing. They are not striking. They are asking just for their seat at the table. They are just asking for the chance to provide input to the folks who control their sport and their lives on the court. 

Colleagues, let’s not give these repeat offenders a bailout. The NCAA only makes changes in response to Congressional pressure or lawsuits. They’ve done little over the decades to make any proactive positive changes. And even today the conferences that make hundreds of millions on uncompensated college athlete labor refuse even to sit down with the players that pay their salaries. 

I thank our witnesses for coming here today.