Protect College Sports Act Heads to US Senate for Vote
A college sports bill, the Protect College Sports Act, heads to the U.S. Senate floor with the potential to introduce sweeping changes.
A 19-9 vote on Thursday in favor of the bill by the Senate Commerce Committee now means there will be a full Senate vote.
The main issues of the Protect College Sports Act
The Protect College Sports Act would grant the NCAA an antitrust exemption, enabling it to impose a cap on college athletes' compensation and to define rules for player eligibility and transfers.
Also, the bill would allow the universities to sell their media rights as a whole, not just by conference.
This has two intentions:
- To provide more funding to less profitable sports.
- To bridge the large financial gap between the two major conferences, the SEC and the Big Ten, and other conferences.
Changes are needed
Not surprisingly, leading members of the SEC and Big 10 oppose the bill as it stands now. However, they are not opposed to all of the language in it; rather, they are concerned about the financial ramifications to their respective conferences.
In a joint statement by the SEC and Big 10 after the vote, they said, "We continue to believe revisions are needed to secure our support for the bill. We are encouraged that several Commerce Committee members share our concerns and support these recommendations.
"We will continue working with stakeholders to ensure [the bill] delivers meaningful protections for student-athletes and lasting stability for college sports."
Running out of time
The path to the bill becoming law may be pressed for time.
One of the bill's co-authors, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), stated that she and other authors will be in talks with the conferences and others who have reservations. There is a good chance that the process will take a significant amount of time. The language in the bill will have to be finalized before the midterms in November, and that could be a tall task.
Even before the bill moved to the Senate floor for a vote, NCAA president Charlie Baker said in a social media post on Wednesday that he wants changes to the bipartisan bill, but did endorse it.
While working with the conferences, Cantwell essentially called out the SEC and the Big Ten during the Commerce Committee voting session. He said, "What we did today was say we're not going to let the most powerful, richest conferences dictate to the rest of America what's going to happen to 500,000 athletes.”
College sports bill in the works for a while
Antitrust protection has been wanted by the NCAA for over six years, and they have continually asked Congress for it. There have been antitrust protection bills in the House and the Senate, but they have all failed.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), co-author of the Protect College Sports Act and chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, used football terms when discussing the timeline: "No more punting. We're in fourth-down territory.
"It's time to go for it."
