Republican U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, speaks during a panel hearing on March 26, 2026 in Washington, DC (Screenshot from committee webcast)
WASHINGTON — Mikayla Pivec said she worked more than 50 hours a week as a college basketball player but earned less than $8 an hour on a $1,600 monthly stipend.
The professional basketball player and former Oregon State University star said she testified at the U.S. Senate panel hearing on Thursday Reimagining college athletics because “the NCAA has failed and continues to fail to protect and respect college athletes.”
Pivec, who worked for a food delivery service and “collected cans” to make ends meet in college, played for Oregon State before the 2021 NCAA guidelines allowed student-athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL).
“NIL has helped some players, but most still earn less than $10 an hour and struggle to pay for basic needs,” she told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
Pivec said “the lack of protection goes far beyond money,” pointing out that she had a foot injury that required surgery and that she was denied an MRI “every time” she asked for one.
She is co-founder and organizing director of the United College Athletes Association, a players’ association dedicated to ensuring that college athletes are protected, educated and fairly compensated.
Another “unfair system”
The college sports landscape continues to struggle with gender inequality in NIL deals, a patchwork of state NIL laws, funding collectives and the controversial NCAA transfer portal, among other issues.
Just last year, a federal judge approved the terms of a near-trial $2.8 billion antitrust settlement This paved the way for schools to pay athletes directly.
At a roundtable at the White House this month, President Donald Trump promised as much issue an implementing regulation shortly aimed to reshape college sports.
“The current situation simply replaces one unfair system with another,” said Senator Bill Cassidy, chairman of the Senate HELP Committee.
“Short-term financial gains from NIL deals overshadow the value of an education and the value of Olympic sports and women’s sports,” the Louisiana Republican said.
Employees?
The fierce debate over whether college athletes should be considered employees took center stage Thursday, sparking mixed views from senators, pundits, executives and athletes.
“I think the political dynamic is that Republicans and Democrats are not that far removed from what we agree on — it’s just this one little issue that’s preventing us from passing something related to unionization and the way we treat student-athletes, whether we treat them as employees or not,” said Sen. Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana.
A bipartisan bill on recess in the US House of Representatives seeks to create a national framework for college athlete compensation and would prohibit college athletes from being classified as employees.
The measure would also give broad antitrust immunity to the NCAA and college athletic conferences.
Sen. Chris Murphy, who has advocated for collective bargaining, said he doesn’t want Congress “to get caught up in micromanaging college athletics and how compensation works.”
“This just doesn’t feel like our role,” the Connecticut Democrat said, criticizing the bipartisan bill as “an attempt to put big schools back in the position of colluding and suppressing wages.”
Trayvean Scott, vice president of intercollegiate athletics at Grambling State University in Louisiana, pointed to a “burden” that athletic departments, and particularly underfunded institutions, would face if student-athletes became employees.
“If you look at it, I am convinced that there will be a gradual reduction in roster spots, particularly in non-revenue sports, particularly men,” he said. “For an institution at Grambling State University, where we have 15 Division I sports, that means baseball will probably be number one.”
