MEAC leader warns a college athlete employee model could ‘destroy’ HBCU athletics

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Commissioner Sonja Stills said HBCU leaders remain cautious about federal NIL legislation, emphasizing that any proposal must protect institutions as much as student-athletes while preserving the traditional college athletics model.

Speaking on HBCUNightly at MEAC Football Media Day, Stills clarified that the previously discussed SCORE Act is no longer under consideration, noting that a new proposal — commonly referred to as the Protect College Sports Act (PCSA) — has taken its place and remains a work in progress.

“Unfortunately, the SCORE Act is dead,” Stills told host Toneda King. “Most people don’t realize that it’s no longer being pushed. Now we’re looking at a different framework, but it still needs a lot of refinement before we can truly support it.”

The proposed legislation would have protected the rights of student-athletes by creating a uniform national law, rather than more than 30 individual state NIL laws.

This bill also aimed to codify the status of student-athletes, thus rendering them ineligible to be considered employees of their colleges and universities.

Student athletes shouldn’t be employees, said Stills

Stills said one of the primary concerns shared by MEAC and other HBCU conferences is the potential classification of student-athletes as employees — a shift she warned could have devastating consequences for HBCU athletic departments.

“We cannot have student-athletes as employees,” she said. “That would be the demise of HBCU athletics as we see it today. We cannot afford to pay student-athletes when we need to focus on infrastructure and facilities.”

She pointed to existing financial disparities, noting that HBCUs are already operating with limited resources compared to larger institutions.

In a May 11 letter to Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke, the leaders of the CIAA, MEAC, SIAC and SWAC said it would impossible to absorb the costs that could come with employee classification, and they warned that in some cases it “could lead to the elimination of intercollegiate athletics” at HBCUs.

“Why are we paying student-athletes to drive in a Mercedes Benz?” Stills said. “We have to prioritize sustainability.”

Beyond compensation concerns, Stills stressed the need for federal legislation to shield HBCUs from the financial ripple effects of ongoing legal challenges within the NCAA.

“Even though lawsuits are aimed at the more powerful institutions, because we are part of the NCAA, we still have to pay into settlements,” she said. “That reduces the revenue available to our student-athletes, and we already know HBCUs are historically underfunded.”

Texas Southern University President James W. Crawford III suggested that HBCUs are already under strain in the current NIL era amid a financial arms race for talent.

He compared the environment to a “Hunger Games” style competition, one that favors the wealthiest programs and leaves smaller schools scrambling to keep up.

“It’s about competing. … If you get at the ability where you have some controls on costs [and] you don’t have this continual bidding, you’re not in a constant recruiting mode because now you’re constantly trying to recruit that great player that just beat your team,” Crawford said.

A call to reprioritize academics at institutions

Stills also called for a unified national NIL standard to replace the current patchwork of state laws, which she said creates compliance challenges for multi-state conferences like the MEAC.

“We need one consistent bill,” she said. “Right now, it’s very difficult when you have institutions across different states operating under different laws.”

Another key priority is restoring stability to college athletics, particularly within the transfer portal. Stills described the current environment as a “wild west” driven by NIL incentives and frequent movement.

“We have student-athletes chasing the dollar,” she said. “We have to calm that down.”

She advocated for a return to stricter transfer rules, including requiring athletes to sit out after a second transfer, as a way to refocus on academics and long-term development.

“We are here to graduate student-athletes,” Stills said. “We are not the development league. We’re not semi-pro. It’s amateurism, and that’s the way it needs to stay.”