Throwing the Penalty Flag on Abuse in College Athletics

On college campuses there are few individuals who hold the same amount of influence and power over a student athlete than collegiate coaches and athletic department staff. The overwhelming majority of staff is there to help student athletes reach their full potential and lay the groundwork for a lifetime of success in their chosen careers. When coaches and staff fail to put the well-being of student athletes first, it can have devastating consequences.

California schools alone have had their share of cases in the headlines. In 2019, the “Varsity Blues” bribery scandal cast a spotlight on an organized corruption scheme that used college athletic programs as a gateway for families with the resources to buy a spot on the roster and college admission into otherwise highly selective schools. More recently, a CSU baseball coach who was found to have sexually and racially harassed players and staff resigned from the university, but was still able to serve as a volunteer for a community college team and as the principal and athletic director of a high school.

Over 10 years ago, California established the Student Athlete Bill of Rights, which enshrined in California law basic health, safety and scholarship protections for student athletes on college campuses across the state. Over the past decade, the legislature has strengthened and expanded those protections to ensure student safety both on and off the field of play. For the over 58,000 student athletes in California, these protections have guarded against abuse and retaliation. However, you don’t have to look too far to see that loopholes in the law and the shortcomings of administrative practices at our colleges and universities are continuing to put student athletes at risk.

To be fair, California schools and their counterparts across the country have oversight and administrative bodies in place to govern athletics and competition. Student athletics are governed by many different sanctioning bodies with different rules, including the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, the National Junior College Athletic Association, the California Community College Athletic Association and the National Christian College Athletic Association. Even within these major sanctioning bodies rules differ. For instance, the NCAA rules governing Division I, II and III institutions of higher education are not necessarily the same across divisions. While these associations have a role to play, they historically have not put student athletes first and they certainly haven’t established strong safeguards to keep abusive or corrupt coaches and staff from moving from one campus to another without consequences.

To better protect student athletes, I’ve introduced Assembly Bill 810, which requires colleges and universities to keep a record of athletic department staff who have been convicted of misconduct related to their position at the school, and use that information to guide hiring and contract renewal decisions with both potential and existing staff.

Colleges and universities in California should be making informed decisions on all of their hiring, especially for positions like those within athletic departments where there is close and often personal contact with students. It’s inexcusable for staff with a proven record of misconduct to be allowed to quietly leave one school only to be placed in a position of power at another school without any oversight or transparency.

I’m looking forward to moving AB 810 through the legislature this year.

California’s student athletes are the best in the nation – they deserve a level playing field and a system of accountability that protects them from abuse.

I hope you will join me in supporting AB 810 and student athletes. As always, please reach out to me with any comments, questions or concerns through my District Office at (818) 558-3043 or Assemblymember.Friedman@Assembly.ca.gov.