Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick told Congress on Tuesday it’s time for college sports to bargain collectively with athletes.

“It’s a fairly radical notion, but if we could find a way to reach binding agreements with our student-athletes, most of this goes away,” Swarbrick said about NIL, per Yahoo. “We don’t have a mechanism to (collectively bargain) without them becoming employees. It would require a new mechanism that would recognize the rights of student-athletes to negotiate for the terms and conditions of their participation as athletes without being employees. I think it’s worth considering.”

During a Senate hearing, NCAA President Charlie Baker shifted the focus of college sports’ need for federal legislation away from regulating how athletes can be compensated for their fame to the looming possibility of the players being deemed employees of their schools.

Swarbrick suggested, however, Congress should also consider opening the door for conferences and/or the NCAA to bargain with athletes over compensation, benefits, hours and more.

The concept, per Yahoo, would “mirror” a collective bargaining system seen in professional sports, but “without stripping student-athletes of their student status.”

“It would require a piece of legislation that recognizes the rights of students who are athletes to enter into binding agreements with something,” he said. “There is a challenge here. Are they bargaining with the NCAA or the conference? It can’t be school by school. You need some competitive equity. You couldn’t have one group of student-athletes negotiate for a 10-game season and another a 12-game season.”

Baker said athlete representatives from all three NCAA divisions have stated they do not want to be employees of their schools. He also warned that without congressional action, Division II and III schools might abandon their athletic programs.

It was the 10th hearing on college sports on Capitol Hill since 2020, but the first since Baker took over as NCAA president earlier this year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.