The Protect College Sports Act passed the Senate on Monday by a vote of 77-22, a landmark legislative step toward unprecedented federal regulation of intercollegiate athletics.
The bipartisan bill, co-authored by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), would give the NCAA a limited antitrust exemption to establish new rules on athlete eligibility, transfers and compensation, while putting notable restraints on conference realignment and the formation of a future super league. It would also increase the revenue-sharing cap from roughly $20 million annually per school to nearly $50 million, with newly established buckets of money for player retention and non-revenue sports.
The antitrust exemption, similar to those given to professional sports leagues, would curb the lawsuits and legal challenges that have handcuffed the NCAA and its conferences in recent years.
The Protect College Sports Act passed the Senate. What’s next?
Ralph D. Russo
Senate approval is a massive win for the NCAA and its conferences, which have spent years and millions of dollars lobbying for a federal law to help create and enforce rules.
But in order to be signed into law by President Donald Trump, a vocal supporter of the bill, the Protect College Sports Act must also pass the House of Representatives by a simple majority.
That vote could still be weeks away and may face additional challenges, which means this historic day for the governance of college sports is not even close to the end of the story.
“There is much work left to do to ensure student-athlete benefits are codified into federal law and future generations of young people can access those benefits and use college sports as the launching point for their careers,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said in a statement Monday night.
Here’s what’s next for the Protect College Sports Act.
Next stop: The House … eventually
Let’s start with the biggest problem: The House is currently out of session after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) abruptly sent members home last week to campaign for midterm elections after Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduced impeachment articles against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
That means no votes on anything until after Nov. 3. Things change on Capitol Hill frequently, but it’s unlikely the House will reopen, and if it does, the Protect College Sports Act probably won’t be the priority.
After the midterm elections, the Protect College Sports Act could be among the first items lawmakers get to, especially after it received such strong support in the Senate.
The election results will play a role, though. If Republicans hold on to their majority, the bill should get through. If Democrats win the House, things get more complicated, as it would need to pass through a lame-duck session, in which the current majority is on its way out.
Typically, that’s not a productive time in Congress, between the transition of power and the compressed calendar around holiday breaks in November and December. But it does happen. The Aviation Safety and Reform Act was passed during a lame-duck session in 2020.
Trump also very much wants this bill passed and would push Republicans to act on it.
For Republicans, it would be a chance to get through a bill that would likely look different if the Democrats were in the majority. The current bill steers away from weighing in on whether college athletes should be considered employees. With Democrats in the majority, that might not fly. The Protect College Sports Act could lose some Democratic support if the House flips, but a person who has been involved in lobbying efforts in support of the bill told The Athletic that about 40 Democrats in the House have indicated support for the bill. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because no one has been authorized to speak publicly on those lobbying efforts.
The bigger issue with a lame-duck session is the very real possibility that lawmakers who have been voted out simply don’t return to Washington to vote on the Protect College Sports Act.
That could further trim the margins for support among Republicans if the House flips.
Will House leadership get involved?
There has been some speculation that Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a fellow Republican from Louisiana, might not be motivated to bring the Protect College Sports Act to the floor for a vote.
The House tried passing a college sports bill called the SCORE Act around this time last year, but it died on the vine and never got to a vote. Still sore about SCORE, would Scalise and Johnson stand in the way?
Multiple people who have worked on the bill downplayed those concerns, believing that Trump’s support for the Protect College Sports Act would move Republican leadership to push forward. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to give candid analysis.
Other opposition
The Congressional Black Caucus has on multiple occasions said it would not support a college sports bill, first the SCORE Act and now the Protect College Sports Act, as it urges universities to push back on what CBC members say are Republican attempts to infringe upon voting rights in their states.
It’s a protest stance that is unlikely to change, but Protect College Sports Act supporters believe even without the caucus’ members, the bill would have enough votes to pass.
The provisions in the Protect College Sports Act limiting schools’ ability to switch conferences could also throw a realignment-related wrinkle in the plans.
The limitations are meant to put the brakes on movement among power-conference schools for six years. Beyond that, the bill would cap the number of members a Power 4 conference can have at 20.
That specific part of the bill has raised concerns among some schools outside the Big Ten and SEC, the two wealthiest conferences. Lawmakers in Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina — the home states of key realignment targets Miami, Florida State, North Carolina and Clemson — pushed for some modifications before the bill passed the Senate and got one.
An amendment introduced by Florida Sen. Ashley Moody passed Monday night, increasing the cap from 19 to 20. Observers believe that should make it less of a potential issue in the House.
The unknown
The biggest hurdle for the Protect College Sports Act in the House might have nothing to do with college sports, the contents of the bill or who is and is not supporting it.
College sports leaders have learned a hard lesson over the past couple years: When you go all in on working with the government to solve your problems, you can end up being at the mercy of everything else in the world.
