logo
USOPC asks for tweak of college sports bill to set minimum spending limits for Olympic programs

USOPC asks for tweak of college sports bill to set minimum spending limits for Olympic programs

Boston Globe4 days ago
'You look and you say, 'Is that effectively going to thwart the issue of allocating too many resources to football and not enough to other things?' And my assessment is, no, it's not going to do that,' Hirshland said.
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
The USOPC says all but three of the 67 Power Four schools sponsor more than 16 sports and the average school in that group has more than 21.
Advertisement
At last year's Paris Olympics, 75 percent of US Olympians and 53 percent of Paralympians had a connection with US college sports.
The SCORE Act recently passed a House subcommittee and is set for markup this week, a process in which lawmakers amend certain facets of the bill. Hirshland said USOPC leadership has long been in discussions about adding provisions that would compel schools to spend at least the same percentage on Olympic sports as they do now.
Advertisement
'The bill, as it's written, would make it too easy for a school to starve 15 programs and invest in one,' Hirshland said. 'It's important schools have the latitude to make decisions that are most effective for the school, but while also creating an environment that says 'You don't just need to be a football school.' '
She said she was encouraged that lawmakers were including provisions for protecting Olympic sports in a bill that would regulate the shifting college landscape.
The SCORE Act proposes to provide limited antitrust protection for the NCAA and would place the college sports' name, image, likeness system under one federal law instead of a mishmash of state regulations.
Starting this month, schools are allowed to pay up to $20.5 million to athletes in NIL deals. Most of that money will be funneled to football and basketball players, whose sports generate the bulk of college athletics revenue. It has left many to wonder about the future of the Olympic programs.
The act also includes a section that purports to protect Olympic sports with the 16-team minimum, but in the letter to House leaders, Sykes and Hirshland were skeptical of that.
'The USOPC is committed to being a partner in this process and would welcome the opportunity to share further insights, data, and recommendations,' they wrote.
It also mandates that athletes not be turned into employees of their schools, a sticking point for some Democrats that figures to keep the bill from moving along in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to pass.
Hirshland said the USOPC hasn't taken a 'strong position' on the employment issue, and is mostly concerned that any legislation includes strong protection for Olympic sports.
Advertisement
She says the USOPC-backed idea of keeping spending at certain percentages isn't the only answer to the issue, but might be the simplest and best.
'We don't want schools to starve Olympic sports by cutting them or starving them,' she said. 'We want them to continue to provide investment in the growth of these sports.'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

New-look Australia focused on LA 2028 at swimming worlds
New-look Australia focused on LA 2028 at swimming worlds

Yahoo

time24 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

New-look Australia focused on LA 2028 at swimming worlds

Lani Pallister on Saturday urged her young Australian team-mates to "soak in the moment" at swimming's world championships in Singapore with one eye on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The Australians won seven swimming golds at the Paris Olympics but several big names have since retired or are skipping this year's world championships, which begin Sunday. That has opened the door for 10 debutants and Pallister, who made her Olympic bow in Paris, urged them to make the most of the experience. "I think it's important for those on the team this year to really soak in the moment and do their best," said the 23-year-old. "I don't really think it's about the medal table, I think in three years' time is the bigger picture." Australia's most successful Olympian, Emma McKeon, has hung up her goggles as have other stalwarts including Mitch Larkin, Brianna Throssell and Jenna Strauch. Four-time Olympic gold medallist Ariarne Titmus -- who lost her 400m freestyle world record to Canadian Summer McIntosh last month -- is on an extended break. Eleven of Australia's squad in Singapore are aged 20 or under. Veteran Cameron McEvoy, who is appearing at his seventh world championship, said the Australians were a team in transition. "Things come and go, things change, you have to build up from time to time, you can't be constantly at the top and only at the top," said the 31-year-old, the 50m freestyle Olympic champion. "We have the most rookies on our team that I've seen across my whole time, which is exciting too." At just 16, Sienna Toohey came from nowhere to qualify for the 50m and 100m breaststroke. Australia also have high hopes for fellow newcomers Hannah Fredericks (200m backstroke) and Ben Goedemans (800m freestyle), while Ella Ramsay, 21, will contest four events. "A lot of them are very young, they've got a lot of years ahead of them," said McEvoy. "Starting that three years out from the Olympics instead of, say, 2027, one year out, goes a long way too." amk/pst

Statehouses are the public's houses, but the fight for potty parity continues
Statehouses are the public's houses, but the fight for potty parity continues

Washington Post

timean hour ago

  • Washington Post

Statehouses are the public's houses, but the fight for potty parity continues

For female state lawmakers in Kentucky, choosing when to go to the bathroom has long required careful calculation. There are only two bathroom stalls for women on the third floor of the Kentucky Statehouse, where the House and Senate chambers are located. Female legislators — 41 of the 138 member Legislature — needing a reprieve during a lengthy floor session have to weigh the risk of missing an important debate or a critical vote.

Statehouses are the public's houses, but the fight for potty parity continues
Statehouses are the public's houses, but the fight for potty parity continues

Hamilton Spectator

timean hour ago

  • Hamilton Spectator

Statehouses are the public's houses, but the fight for potty parity continues

For female state lawmakers in Kentucky, choosing when to go to the bathroom has long required careful calculation. There are only two bathroom stalls for women on the third floor of the Kentucky Statehouse, where the House and Senate chambers are located. Female legislators — 41 of the 138 member Legislature — needing a reprieve during a lengthy floor session have to weigh the risk of missing an important debate or a critical vote. None of their male colleagues face the same dilemma because, of course, multiple men's bathrooms are available. The Legislature even installed speakers in the men's bathrooms to broadcast the chamber's events so they don't miss anything important. In a pinch, House Speaker David Osborne allows women to use his single stall bathroom in the chamber, but even that attracts long lines. 'You get the message very quickly: This place was not really built for us,' said Rep. Lisa Willner, a Democrat from Louisville, reflecting on the photos of former lawmakers, predominantly male, that line her office. The issue of potty parity may seem comic, but its impact runs deeper than uncomfortably full bladders, said Kathryn Anthony, professor emerita at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's School of Architecture. 'It's absolutely critical because the built environment reflects our culture and reflects our population,' said Anthony, who has testified on the issue before Congress. 'And if you have an environment that is designed for half the population but forgets about the other half, you have a group of disenfranchised people and disadvantaged people.' There is hope for Kentucky's lady legislators seeking more chamber potties. A $300 million renovation of the 155-year-old Capitol — scheduled for completion by 2028 at the soonest — aims to create more women's restrooms and end Kentucky's bathroom disparity. The Bluegrass State is among the last to add bathrooms to aging statehouses that were built when female legislators were not a consideration. In the $392 million renovation of the Georgia Capitol, expanding bathroom access is a priority, said Gerald Pilgrim, chief of staff with the state's Building Authority. It will introduce female facilities on the building's fourth floor, where the public galleries are located, and will add more bathrooms throughout to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. 'We know there are not enough bathrooms,' he said. Evolving equality in statehouses There's no federal law requiring bathroom access for all genders in public buildings. Some 20 states have statutes prescribing how many washrooms buildings must have, but historical buildings — such as statehouses — are often exempt. Over the years, as the makeup of state governments has changed, statehouses have added bathrooms for women. When Tennessee's Capitol opened in 1859, the architects designed only one restroom — for men only — situated on the ground floor. According to legislative librarian Eddie Weeks, the toilet could only be 'flushed' when enough rainwater had been collected. 'The room was famously described as 'a stench in the nostrils of decency,'' Weeks said in an email. Today, Tennessee's Capitol has a female bathroom located between the Senate and House chambers. It's in a cramped hall under a staircase, sparking comparisons to Harry Potter's cupboard bedroom, and it contains just two stalls. The men also just have one bathroom on the same floor, but it has three urinals and three stalls. Democratic Rep. Aftyn Behn, who was elected in 2023, said she wasn't aware of the disparity in facilities until contacted by The Associated Press. 'I've apparently accepted that waiting in line for a two-stall closet under the Senate balcony is just part of the job,' she said. 'I had to fight to get elected to a legislature that ranks dead last for female representation, and now I get to squeeze into a space that feels like it was designed by someone who thought women didn't exist — or at least didn't have bladders,' Behn said. The Maryland State House is the country's oldest state capitol in continuous legislative use, operational since the late 1700s. Archivists say its bathroom facilities were initially intended for white men only because desegregation laws were still in place. Women's restrooms were added after 1922, but they were insufficient for the rising number of women elected to office. Delegate Pauline Menes complained about the issue so much that House Speaker Thomas Lowe appointed her chair of the 'Ladies Rest Room Committee,' and presented her with a fur covered toilet seat in front of her colleagues in 1972. She launched the women's caucus the following year. It wasn't until 2019 that House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, the first woman to secure the top position, ordered the addition of more women's restrooms along with a gender-neutral bathroom and a nursing room for mothers in the Lowe House Office Building. 'No longer do we fret and squirm or cross our legs in panic' As more women were elected nationwide in the 20th century, some found creative workarounds. In Nebraska's unicameral Legislature, female senators didn't get a dedicated restroom until 1988, when a facility was added in the chamber's cloakroom. There had previously been a single restroom in the senate lounge, and Sen. Shirley Marsh, who served for some 16 years, would ask a State Patrol trooper to guard the door while she used it, said Brandon Metzler, the Legislature's clerk. In Colorado, female House representatives and staff were so happy to have a restroom added in the chamber's hallway in 1987 that they hung a plaque to honor then-state Rep. Arie Taylor, the state's first Black woman legislator, who pushed for the facility. The plaque, now inside a women's bathroom in the Capitol, reads: 'Once here beneath the golden dome if nature made a call, we'd have to scramble from our seats and dash across the hall ... Then Arie took the mike once more to push an urge organic, no longer do we fret and squirm or cross our legs in panic.' The poem concludes: 'In mem'ry of you, Arie (may you never be forgot), from this day forth we'll call that room the Taylor Chamber Pot.' New Mexico Democratic state Rep. Liz Thomson recalled missing votes in the House during her first year in office in 2013 because there was no women's restroom in the chamber's lounge. An increase in female lawmakers — New Mexico elected the largest female majority Legislature in U.S. history in 2024 — helped raise awareness of the issue, she said. 'It seems kind of like fluff, but it really isn't,' she said. 'To me, it really talks about respect and inclusion.' The issue is not exclusive to statehouses. In the U.S. Capitol, the first restroom for congresswomen didn't open until 1962. While a facility was made available for female U.S. Senators in 1992, it wasn't until 2011 that the House chamber opened a bathroom to women lawmakers. Jeannette Rankin of Montana was the first woman elected to a congressional seat. That happened in 1916. Willner insists that knowing the Kentucky Capitol wasn't designed for women gives her extra impetus to stand up and make herself heard. 'This building was not designed for me,' she said. 'Well, guess what? I'm here.' ___ Associated Press writer Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, contributed. ____ The Associated Press' women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at . Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store