College sports reform gains traction in D.C., but some say bill shorts athletes

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate is moving toward a possible vote this weekend on a massive package of new national rules for the fast-changing and messy landscape of college sports.

The bill would impose a one-time school transfer rule for student athletes while also setting down a five-year total college sports eligibility limit. It would cap the number of teams in any one conference at 19 schools and put ceilings on sports agents’ wages.

The 171-page bipartisan legislation would also spell out a strong national standard for athletes’ rights to earn compensation for their name, image and likeness (NIL) replacing the patchwork of state laws with a national NIL standard.

The Protect College Sports Act would even install a new, so-called "Lane Kiffen Rule" to prevent in-season coaching migration — named for the nomadic head football coach who most recently and abruptly left the University of Mississippi last year for a job at rival Louisiana State University.

And those are just some of the easier-to-understand implications of the bill’s sweep of potential congressional intervention, including granting limited antitrust exemption to the NCAA. The bill also creates a new $22.5 million retention fund for schools to retain student athletes, and allows it to grow to $27.5 million if schools invest in NIL for women’s and Olympic sports.

But opponents are digging in on various areas of concern. That includes opposition by the Congressional Black Caucus, a group of more than 60 lawmakers mostly in the U.S. House that says the legislation does not adequately protect student athletes. The bill will need House approval if the Senate advances it.

The CBC’s chair, Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn) and other group members issued a statement Thursday asserting that the bill offers "new legal protections to powerful institutions" while it "falls short of providing Black athletes with the rights, representation, economic opportunities and meaningful safeguards they deserve."

And Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and two other Republican senators on Thursday filed an amendment that would prevent the Protect College Sports Act from overriding state laws that bar biological males from competing in women’s athletics, which they see as a possible loophole in the language. In addition, a broad group of labor and other organizations has also come out against the bill.

As of Thursday afternoon, New York’s two U.S. senators — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand weren’t saying through their offices whether they plan to back the college sports bill.

Support from universities

The bill’s sponsors, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) have spent recent weeks trying to sell the bill to their colleagues. It got enough support to move out of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which Cruz chairs, and where Cantwell serves as top Democrat.

"We need to stabilize the arms race," Cantwell said this week after Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) announced he would seek to advance the bill to a vote. 

The White House issued a statement of support on Thursday.

Cantwell described the bill as granting athletes the ability under federal law to earn compensation for their name, image and likeness, protections for their scholarships and healthcare, while preventing schools from having to shortchange research dollars to pay for coaches’ salaries and protecting women’s and Olympic sports roster slots.

Cruz says the bill also would protect traditional rivalries on football schedules and preserve opportunities for student athletes. He said it is backed a coalition of groups that spans twenty-seven conferences including the Big Ten and SEC, hundreds of universities and some pro sports leagues.

"The Protect College Sports Act is our last best chance to preserve one of America’s great unifying traditions for the athletes who compete and the fans who fill the stands," he said, adding, "College sports cannot afford another punt."

Union opposition

The AFL-CIO and the AFL-CIO Sports Council, which represents athletes across professional sports leagues, is also among opponents of the bill. The union said in a statement that the bill would let the NCAA unilaterally set rules for student athletes, ..."shielded from antitrust liability, with no suggestion that the rules ever be collectively bargained with athletes at the table."

Another wrinkle is that Thune, the Senate majority leader, is pushing to complete a crunch of other legislative business before adjourning the chamber by Monday for the start of senators’ five-week August recess. Those items include a short-term bill to temporary continue government funding beyond the November midterm elections, confirmations of executive branch nominees and confirmation of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to officially take over the Department of Justice.

The challenge now for Thune and bill supporters is to secure the 60 Senate votes needed in a procedural vote in the Senate chamber — likely Saturday — to advance to an up-or-down vote on passage. If the legislation passes, more work for final congressional passage awaits in the House after that chamber returns from its recess.

Former University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban and longtime university administrator Gordon Gee are among those who have written to Congress urging support the bill.

"Congress rarely gets to strengthen an institution that has shaped generations of Americans. This is one of those moments," they wrote." Pass the Protect College Sports Act — not for universities, and not for coaches, but for the young people whose futures college sports will shape."