No Elite Athletes Using X-pro status to ensure Prioritizing Recruitment Of Student-athletes (NEAUX PROS) Act

Congress finds the following:

(1) The Federal Government, through title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq.), provides substantial financial assistance to institutions of higher education, including institutions that sponsor intercollegiate athletics programs.

(2) Intercollegiate athletics in the United States have historically been organized and promoted as competition among student-athletes who are not simultaneously under contract to compete professionally in the same sport.

(3) Permitting an individual under contract to a professional sports team, league, club, or organization in a given sport to also compete as a student-athlete in that same sport at an institution receiving Federal student assistance blurs the distinction between amateur and professional competition and may disadvantage student-athletes who are not also under professional contract.

(4) It is appropriate for Congress to condition an institution’s continued eligibility to participate in title IV programs on the institution’s not permitting such dual participation, in the same manner Congress has conditioned title IV eligibility on other institutional conduct unrelated to the direct administration of student financial aid.

(5) Athletics department officials who knowingly direct, lead, or carry out the recruitment or signing of a professional athlete in violation of this Act bear individual responsibility for circumventing the eligibility condition established by this Act that is distinct from, and in addition to, the institution’s own responsibility under its program participation agreement.