Months ago, while discussing the impending chaotic scene in college athletics, Tom McMillen, himself a former Congressional lawmaker, reminded NCAA president Mark Emmert that chaos is a mechanism for change.
“It is a fertile legislative ground,” says McMillen, now the president of Lead1, which represents the athletic directors of the Football Bowl Subdivision. “Sometimes you need chaos to get people focused in Washington.”
More than a year later, chaos is nearly here. And so too is, maybe, a Congressional bill governing athlete compensation, most often referred to as name, image and likeness (NIL).
A group of U.