This Plan was authored by former Division I Student-Athletes and participants at the highest level in the business of sports. We believe the opportunity to enjoy life as a true student-athlete — on the field, in the classrooms and socially within the student body — is a unique and incredibly valuable experience. One of the foundational principles of college athletics is the principle of amateurism, and it is one we wish to protect. However, since this principle was adopted with the founding of the NCAA in 1906, the economics of college sports have changed drastically. We believe that, while the fundamentals of college athletics must be preserved, some traditions and ways of thinking need to give way to change for the very concept of amateur college athletics to survive.

Tye’s passion for college sports stems from his experiences as a D1 baseball player, lawyer and participant in sports business for over a decade. Tye has spent his entire career in or around the sports industry, beginning as the in-house counsel of a sports marketing agency. He has represented and worked with a multitude of professional athletes, brands and organizations.

He is passionate about maintaining the sanctity of college athletics while leveling the playing field and emphasizing the importance of education. In addition to sports, Tye’s purpose is to help entrepreneurs, companies and highly visible individuals achieve their goals, which he does as a founder and partner at Weinberg Gonser LLP in Los Angeles, California.

Although his collegiate athletic career never went further than intramurals and the occasional philanthropy event, Bryan Bitzer’s knowledge of college sports has developed over a lifetime of NCAA fandom and painful devotion to the Illinois Fighting Illini. Moreover, he has developed an intimate and extensive understanding of the landscape of amateur athletics by working within several levels of the Olympic Movement. It was his passion for amateur sports – and subsequent concern over the current climate of the NCAA – paired with his professional experience that drove him to create a real, workable solution to the problem of student-athlete compensation.