The Drake Group: Advancing Positive Legislative Change in College Athletics

The Drake Group Endorses 2024 GAO Report Detailing Title IX Enforcement Failures

The Drake Group Endorses 2024 GAO Report Detailing Title IX Enforcement Failures

In April 2024, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report, “College Athletics: Education Should Improve Its Title IX Enforcement Efforts.” The GAO found that 93 percent of all intercollegiate athletic programs were not offering athletics opportunities to females proportional to their percentage in the full-time undergraduate student body. The overall athletic participation rate … Read more

The Drake Group Releases Congressional Briefing Paper and Calls for the Establishment of a Presidential Commission to Examine the Conduct of College Athletics

On July 11, 2024, David C. Hughes, Ph.D., President of The Drake Group, announced the release of the organization’s preliminary assessment of the proposed settlement of three major antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA and its five most powerful Division I conferences (Power Five conferences). Under the framework and details that have been announced by the … Read more

The Drake Group Applauds the “Fair Play for Women Act”

On February 7, 2024, National Girls and Women in Sports Day, U.S. Senator Christopher Murphy (CT-D) and U.S. Representative Alma Adams (NC-12-D) introduced the Fair Play for Women Act in the 118th Congress. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Representatives Lori Trahan (D-MS-03) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR-1) co-sponsored the legislation. Donna A. … Read more

The Drake Group Offers An Educational Sport Framework for the NCAA Governance Conversation

On December 5, 2023, NCAA President Baker proposed a new Division I tier in which schools would be required to pay at least 50 percent of their male and female athletes a minimum of $30,000 annually and have no limits on how much schools could pay individual athletes for use of their NILs. Pundits suggest … Read more

The Drake Group Examines 2023 Congressional Efforts to Alleviate the College Athlete NIL Chaos

Representatives of the NCAA, prominent athletic conferences, and athletics administrators have been pacing the halls of Congress asking their Senators and Representatives for federal laws that would negate the patchwork of state laws that gave college athletes name, image, and likeness employment rights outside their education institutions. Such employment is a good thing for athletes, … Read more

Why is the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights Failing to Help Colleges and Universities Resolve the Current Name/Image/Likeness Chaos?

On August 1, 2023, The Drake Group sent its fourth request to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights asking that they issue existing Title IX guidance to colleges and universities to address sex discrimination in recruiting, publicity, promotion, and financial aid by name/image/likeness collectives (NIL collectives) they are directly and indirectly supporting. … Read more

Following Reports of Hazing and Abuse, The Drake Group Calls Upon Congress to Enact the College Athletes Bill of Rights

WESTPORT, CT – July 18, 2023. Prompted by last week’s reports about systemic sexual hazing, harassment, racism, and other abuse in Northwestern University athletics programs, The Drake Group renewed its call for Congressional action on the College Athletes Bill of Rights, sponsored by U.S. Senators Cory Booker (NJ) and Richard Blumenthal (CT). The legislation would … Read more

The Drake Group Meets with Government Officials to Request Issuance of Title IX NIL Guidance

On March 9, 2023, a delegation of Title IX and NIL experts from The Drake Group (TDG) met with Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) staff members to ask for the assistance of OCR to ensure gender equity and compliance with Title IX in the new chaotic environment created by NIL (name, image, … Read more

The Drake Group Letter to U.S. Dept. of Education/Office for Civil Rights — Request for Issuance of Title IX Guidance Addressing Recruiting Practices of NIL Booster Collectives

The Drake Group believes that the current NIL chaos can be relieved by DOE/OCR clearly and precisely warning institutions, their conferences, and national governance organizations of their obligations under existing Title IX requirements, explaining how those requirements apply to these new NIL-related activities, and warning that actions by “NIL booster collectives” will be attributed to the universities when appropriate. The … Read more

The Economics of College Sport

Andrew Zimbalist, Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics, Smith College; President-Elect, The Drake Group; author of Unpaid Professionals: Commercialism and Conflict in Big-time College Sports (1999), The Economics of Sport, I & II (2001), Unwinding Madness: What Went Wrong with College Sports and How to Fix It (2017) with Gerry Gurney and Donna Lopiano, and Whither College Sports (2021), explains the economics of … Read more

Senator Christopher Murphy – Giving College Athletes A Greater Voice

At the 2022 Allen Sack National Symposium on Advancing Integrity in College Sport, U.S. Senator Christopher Murphy speaks on S.1929 — 117th Congress (2021–2022) College Athlete Right To Organize Act. Read S.1929 here See full 2022 National Symposium proceedings here

A Tribute to Gerald Gurney

The Drake Group is saddened to report that Dr. Gerald Gurney, who served The Drake Group as its President from 2014 to 2016 and as a member of its Board of Directors for twelve years, passed away on February 23, 2022. We extend our deepest sympathies to his wife, Debra Stuart, and daughter Rachel. In … Read more