Findings

Congress finds the following: (1) Intercollegiate athletics are conducted under the auspices of nonprofit institutions of higher education and, when properly governed, promote student development, campus life, community identity, and broad public engagement in education—benefits that constitute a public good aligned with the educational missions those institutions are chartered to serve. (2) Intercollegiate athletics generate billions of dollars in revenue annually through national media contracts, sponsorships, and ticket sales that span multiple States, creating a significant impact on interstate commerce. (3) Public institutions of higher education are financed and supported by taxpayers through direct appropriations, tax-exempt status, subsidized Federal student aid, and tax-advantaged debt, and therefore have a heightened obligation to ensure that institutional assets—including intercollegiate athletics programs and facilities—are managed for public benefit and student welfare rather than private enrichment. (4) Agreements that convey ownership, revenue-sharing, control rights, or security interests in intercollegiate athletics to private equity, hedge funds, or similar vehicles are inherently conflicted, create pressure to maximize short-term cash flows at the expense of educational and Title IX obligations, and risk extracting wealth from publicly supported institutions and their students—undermining transparency, accountability, and the public purposes for which those institutions exist.