College athletes have all sorts of support systems around them that they probably don’t know about. The National College Players Association is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to advocating for the rights of college athletes. This movement has been around since 2001. Executive Director Ramogi Huma formed the NCPA. He started it as a student group when he was a defensive player for UCLA during his time in college, and it eventually formed into the 501 c3 non-profit advocacy association it is now.
In the past 23 years, Huma has led this organization empowering thousands of athletes with over 150 campuses participating in the movement dedicated to improving the lives of college athletes. One of the main things this program has pushed is developing laws supporting college athletes’ rights.
The overall mission of this nonprofit organization “is to provide the means for college athletes to voice their concerns and change NCAA rules.”
So, what are their goals?
goals:
1. health and safety standards
The NCPA prioritizes focusing on the health and safety of athletes. While the NCAA doesn’t protect athletes the way they should, the NCPA advocates for implementing standards. The goal here is to minimize the athlete’s risk of any type of abuse, injury or any type of illness. Here, “the NCPA has sponsored legislation to establish a commission to do what the NCAA refuses to do – adopt and enforce critical safety mandates.” This relates to the NCPA preventing players from having to pay for medical expenses that relate to their sport. Currently, the NCAA doesn’t require schools to cover athletes’ injuries that occur during their time playing for the school. So, the NCPA wants to make sure athletes don’t have to pay out-of-pocket in college.
2. education opportunities and standings
The NCPA wants to heavily increase athletes’ graduation rates and educational success. While many collegiate athletes receive scholarships for their sport, they are still attending school for their degree. It is found that often football and basketball programs have lower graduation rates. The NCPA is urging the NCAA to extend scholarship durations, so athletes have the incentive to graduate.
3. prohibit unnecessary restrictions
When athletes are injured during the season, there is a possibility their scholarship could be eliminated or reduced. The NCPA challenges this and views it as immoral for a university to suspend an athlete’s credentials because of an injury for the sport they are there to play.
Some schools still have restrictions on the name, image and likeness ability. This would prevent them from earning compensation when presenting themselves online and in collaboration with brands. This limits their freedom in a big part of our world today. The NCPA is using its organization to advocate for compensation for collegiate players for NIL. This emphasizes a main goal the NCPA has of ensuring that “college athletes share in an equitable portion of the revenue that they generate,” ultimately fighting for fair compensation.
4. equality: gender + justice
A big part of collegiate sports has been and always will be gender equality. The NCPA highly emphasizes this importance, specifically in compliance with Title IX. It also wants to help seek justice in the areas of punishments for college athletes concerning actions that weren’t committed by them. This affects eligibility and could negatively impact an athlete’s experience. The NCPA hopes to regulate rules that would allow “adequate policing.”
The NCPA is an organization looking out for student college athletes. It is taking on the role of advocacy and protection for future, current and former athletes. It is a place where athletes are welcome to voice their concerns and advocate for change in some of the NCAA rules.
Addie Peterson 
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