At a U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearing Wednesday, NCAA President Mark Emmert pitched the idea of offering student-athletes "scholarships for life."
According to the Associated Press, Emmert said he would like to see an end to year-to-year scholarships as well as better medical coverage for student-athletes. He also said he wanted scholarships to go beyond covering just room and board.
CLICK HERE to read the full transcript of Emmert's testimony.
The hearing was also meant to address a report released by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) in which she found 20 percent of U.S. colleges and universities give their athletic departments oversight of sexual assault cases involving a student-athlete.
However, Emmert and the NCAA are not bending in their staunch defense of the model of amateurism in college sports. He also iterated the need to fix the "national crisis" of sexual assault on campus.
While fighting legal battles on multiple fronts, the NCAA has been working to appease their critics with various policy changes. The NCAA is trying to establish a new proposal in which Division I "power conference" schools have more autonomy and can offer scholarship athletes more than just the cost of admission.
The NCAA is awaiting a decision from Judge Claudia Wilken regarding a class-action lawsuit from former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon. The lawsuit calls for an injunction that would require the NCAA to compensate its student-athletes for use of their name, image and likeness. Simultaneously, the NCAA is trying to thwart the Northwestern University football team's attempt to form a union, which would certainly encourage other sports teams to do the same.
When questioned by Dan Coats (R-Ind.), Emmert called the heading Wednesday "a useful cattle prod," according to USA Today.
"It makes sure we know that the world is watching, that the Senate is watching. I believe we will wind up in the right place in a couple of months," Emmert said. "If we don't, I'm sure we'll have these conversations again."
