Tom McMillen swears this is not what it looks like. Not yet, at least. A former basketball star and member of Congress, McMillen now heads LEAD1, a trade group for college athletic directors at the nation's biggest sports schools.
Yes, McMillen acknowledges, his group recently announced the formation of a political action committee (PAC), the better to funnel money from its members to campaigns and candidates.
Yes, LEAD1 alsowill be holding a fall gala at the Trump Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., where lawmakers will have a chance to mingle with campus power brokers, and the president-elect himself—a longtime acquaintance of McMillen's—may appear.
And yes, the ongoing battle over the National Collegiate Athletic Association's multibillion-dollar amateur economy—a system that prevents athletes from being paid, yet enriches athletic directors enough that they can afford their own PAC—may ultimately be settled on Capitol Hill, given that association president Mark Emmert and others have said they mayseek a Congressional antitrust exemption if federal courts continue to rule that the status quo is, well, illegal.
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