‘We are headed toward a future where college athletics, and specifically college football, will be reduced to a super league of just a handful of the wealthiest schools,’ Sen. Ted Cruz writes.
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For hundreds of thousands of student athletes, college sports are an opportunity. Sports are a means to a better life because they teach young men and women the traits that are necessary to succeed as adults – grit, work ethic, self-discipline and teamwork.
Student athletes often must train before sunrise, balance full academic schedules and compete for their teammates, their schools and the communities that stand behind them.
At a time when Americans are divided on so many issues, seeing young men and women mature through sports is one thing that unites and inspires us. College sports remain a rare tradition that still brings people together.
On fall Saturdays during football season, college towns come alive. Stands fill with school colors, marching bands echo through the afternoon air, and thousands of families, friends and alumni return to campus, carrying decades of pride and history into every rivalry game.
Yet the foundation that has sustained college athletics is beginning to crack.
In fact, college sports are changing faster than ever. Schools are losing tens of millions of dollars attempting to keep up with an out-of-control spending arms race.
Eligibility is being decided by lawsuits and injunctions, leaving local judges to rewrite the rules in favor of their hometown teams. Pro athletes are now trying to return to play in college, stealing roster spots from 18-year-old students. Sports that don’t generate significant revenue, including many women’s sports and sports featured in Olympic competitions, are being canceled week after week.
As Derek Mason, the head coach of Middle Tennessee State football, put it, college sports look like “The Hunger Games.”
College sports are on an unsustainable path
If things don’t change, we are headed toward a future where college athletics, and specifically college football, will be reduced to a super league of just a handful of the wealthiest schools.
That’s a future in which America may lose its dominance in Olympic sports. A future in which hundreds of thousands of athletic scholarships disappear.
This damage is already visible. In the past two years, more than 400 college sports programs have been canceled or gutted. USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington joined the Big Ten, while Stanford and California went to the Atlantic Coast Conference, decimating the Pac-12, a conference with roots dating to 1915.
These events have led to calls for Congress to step up. While some fans and pundits scoff at lawmakers’ involvement, the reality is the legal problems and court battles consuming college sports are the result of laws previously enacted by Congress.
Only Congress can fix those laws so there is a clear and enforceable national rulebook for college sports. If lawmakers don’t act, the college sports landscape that Americans have known for generations will soon cease to exist.
As chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over college athletics, and as a Texan who understands that football is more than merely a pastime, I have spent the past three years working to craft a solution. Over the last several months, I spent countless hours at the negotiating table with my Democratic counterpart, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state, searching for common ground.
After hundreds of difficult conversations and hard-fought compromises, we produced the Protect College Sports Act – a bipartisan bill designed not only to address issues around name, image and likeness deals, but also to stabilize college athletics for future generations to come.
Rules must be uniform and fairly applied
The act would end the chaos and solve the immediate crisis that has fans most alarmed. First and foremost, it would empower schools to set and enforce national rules around fair competition, recruiting and tampering so coaches could build and sustain their programs.
It would prevent the formation of a super league that would throw away more than a century of tradition. It would create clear national rules for transfers and eligibility. Meaningful rules and stability will also ensure Olympic sports don’t become casualties of the ongoing arms race.
Perhaps as important, it would protect student athletes from unscrupulous agents, ensure they have access to medical care, protect scholarships for the injured, and create an independent ombudsman office to assist them in making sense of their new rights.
Student athletes would have guaranteed opportunities to play and earn from their licensing deals, as well as getting their degrees.
Protect College Sports Act has broad bipartisan and university support
During committee discussion of the legislation, the bill was amended to address many stakeholder concerns, which led to an overwhelming bipartisan vote of more than two-thirds of committee members in support, propelling its advancement to the Senate floor.
The bill has the backing of more than 260 universities and colleges, including hundreds of coaches, student athletes and key stakeholders like the President’s College Sports Commission. President Donald Trump supports our work on this issue and wants to see a bill on his desk “before it’s too late.”
We cannot wait until the system completely collapses and then attempt to rebuild what was lost. College sports are one of America’s great unifying traditions, and if we want to preserve them for future generations, the Senate and House of Representatives must act now.
Ted Cruz is a Republican U.S. senator representing Texas.
