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Texas congressman Colin Allred might know the ins and outs of college athlete legislation better than anyone else on Capitol Hill. From 2001-05, Allred played linebacker at Baylor University and landed in the NFL for five seasons with the Tennessee Titans. He later went to law school and served in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development before winning a congressional seat in 2018.
So much of his career success was driven by his decision to attend Baylor and set himself up for law school. But in the Wild West college landscape of name, image and likeness (NIL), would he have made the same decision? And would he have emerged as a U.S. congressman?
“I just can’t imagine having to navigate this now,” Allred told CBS Sports. “When I was 18, having to choose a school based on who was going to pay me the most instead of what the best fit for me would was? That would have thrown a lot of different variables into that decision.”
Allred has emerged as one of the key figures in Congress pushing behind the scenes on legislation for college athletics. The House v. NCAA lawsuit settlement opens the door to direct payment from universities to athletes, but it leaves few guidelines as conferences and athletic departments wrap their heads around how to implement the most dramatic change in the history of college athletics.
Allred was raised by a single mother in Dallas and played during an era when compensation was almost exclusively limited to school and housing; his family couldn’t afford to fill in many gaps. Allred would have been one of the chief financial beneficiaries as a major college football player. But while he fully supports direct payment to revenue-sport athletes, he emphasized what he sees as the bigger picture of…
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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/once-a-college-football-star-rep-colin-allred-now-stumping-for-athlete-protection-amid-house-v-ncaa-fallout/
Author : Shehan Jeyarajah
Publish date : 2024-06-06 15:03:53
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