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U.S. Rep. John Katko is among four House members who authored a bill to hold the NCAA accountable for how it oversees college sports and imposes discipline on schools and athletes. Katko is shown talking with Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud on March 31, 2015 during a visit to campus. Kevin Rivoli | krivoli@syracuse.com

(Kevin Rivoli)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Rep. John Katko, reacting to the NCAA's sanctions against Syracuse University, will help launch a new effort in Congress today to make those who oversee college sports more accountable to students and the public.

Katko, R-Camillus, is one of four House members who will introduce a bipartisan bill, the National Collegiate Athletics Accountability Act, originally written in 2013 by Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa.

The bill seeks sweeping reforms in the way the NCAA oversees more than 1,000 colleges and universities, and more than 430,000 student-athletes, who help generate nearly $800 million per year in revenue from college sports.

A key component of the bill would require the NCAA to be more transparent in how it handles disciplinary cases with student athletes or colleges, investigations that are usually cloaked in secrecy and can drag on for years. Athletes or schools accused of misconduct would be guaranteed the right to an administrative legal trial.

If the bill becomes law, it would affect all schools that receive federal money through federal Pell grants (more than $20 billion per year) or through title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which provides more than $150 billion per year in federal aid.

Katko, a former federal organized-crime prosecutor, had harsh words for the NCAA in March after it imposed sanctions on SU's men's basketball program after an eight-year investigation. He suggested the sanctions were arbitrary, and unduly harsh.

The NCAA penalties stripped SU of 12 men's basketball scholarships over the next four years and forced the university to vacate 108 basketball wins. Hall of Fame Coach Jim Boeheim also was suspended for nine games.

"A primary objective of the NCAA is to provide outstanding higher education opportunities for student-athletes," Katko said Thursday. "However, this organization has become a multi-billion dollar industry that does not always seem to have the best interest of its students at heart."

The legislation, written by Dent, Katko and Reps. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, and Bobby Rush, D-Ill., would establish a Presidential Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics to study the issue.

The panel would report to the White House and Congress about issues that include: the interaction of athletics and academics, the financing of intercollegiate sports, the recruitment and retention of student athletes, and protections related to the enforcement of student-athlete rules and regulations.

The NCAA also would be required to provide annual baseline concussion testing for students involved in contact sports. The schools would have to provide four-year scholarships to those students, which could not be terminated for non-academic reasons.

SU officials had no immediate comment Thursday about the House bill.

Katko, an SU Law School graduate, said he shares the NCAA's goal of preventing improper conduct in collegiate athletics. But he said "its arbitrary decision-making mechanisms and harsh imposition of sanctions -- such as the ones recently imposed on Syracuse University -- are harmful to the health, education, and welfare of our students."



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