On Wednesday, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the committee’s chair, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), asking for a hearing on “antitrust and due process issues relating to intercollegiate athletics, with a particular focus on the impact of recent realignments and legal disputes on smaller, minority conferences and athletes.” Conyers’ specifically addresses conference realignment, the pending case on the NCAA controlling athletes’ “likeness”, the due process rights of athletes, responsibility in event of athletes’ injury, and the limitation on the duration of athletic scholarships.

Sports Fans Coalition fully supports Rep. Conyers’ call for hearings on the NCAA (and the BCS) and has previously called for congressional investigation of realignment. The relentless pursuit of college football television revenues is seriously impacting our institutions of higher learning. Those revenues are based on the unfair and inequitable BCS system. The leaders of the NCAA, the BCS and the conferences should have to explain how the current system is truly in the best interests of students and student athletes.

You can read the letter here.