U.S. Sent. Ted Cruz (RTexas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) reached an agreement on bipartisan legislation to regulate college athletics.
The comprehensive bill, reached after more than two months of negotiations, would grant the NCAA its “long-sought antitrust exemption related to athlete transfers, eligibility and the compensation cap.”
The “Protect College Sports Act” is the most comprehensive, bipartisan college sports legislation produced during the NCAA’s seven-year lobbying effort — and it’s a bill that some believe has the best chance to pass among those previously introduced and rejected -the SCORE and SAFE bills.
The new version precludes the creation of a so-called super league; creates an agent registry limiting fees to 5%; permits the pooling of media rights; and bars coaches from leaving their team before the season ends.
The PSCA bill remains mostly neutral on athlete employment, leaving a possibility for athletes to eventually be deemed employees or/and collectively bargain. Highlights of the bill include: -Administrators will be able to enforce policies related to movement by “permitting only one transfer before a player must miss a season of eligibility.” Further transfers are “permitted under certain conditions.”
-College athletes will have five years of eligibility and pro athletes will be prohibited from “participating in college sports if they earned compensation in their pro careers beyond prize money.”
-Requires Division I institutions to provide medical coverage and set national safety standards for concussions and other physical risks.
-Portions of the House settlement will be codified by “granting legal protection to the NCAA and College Sports Commission to enforce strict standards in prohibiting third-party NIL deals.” This grants the CSC a path to enforce cap policies without the threat of legal challenges and conferences will be allowed to increase the cap.
The Big Ten and SEC have mostly remained silent on the bill thus far, signaling guarded and even skeptical views of a bill that seems to limit their future ability to merge or expand and opens a path, though it’s voluntary, to pool FBS media rights. Leaders at the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee have also express concerns.
Commissioners from the Big 12, ACC and American reportedly sent letters to congressional lawmakers supportive of the legislation, but ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said he did not take an exact position but expressed continued collaboration.
A separate letter was sent as part of Cody Campbell’s “Saving College Sports” movement which had 85 listed signatories - but only four of them held affiliations in an active leadership role with SEC or Big Ten schools including board members from LSU, Michigan and Penn State; and LSU’s president. But the LSU president said he did not authorize his signature to be included in the letter.
A large piece of this legislation permits FBS conferences to break antitrust and collusion laws by consolidating and selling their media rights. In theory, the consolidation of rights will generate more revenue than is produced by the current piecemeal method: single leagues selling their rights individually. At least 75% of FBS, or 104 teams, must agree to the provision to trigger the antitrust protection and allow for the pooling of rights.
The bill grants narrow antitrust protections for the NCAA to enforce the onetime transfer policy, a fiveyear eligibility standard and a codification of House settlement terms intended to provide stricter enforcement of the athlete revenue-share cap.
Tentative plans are already being made for the next step in the process — a “markup” — to come as soon as next week, where committee members make and approve suggestive changes to legislative language.
From there, if enough support exists, the bill may find itself up for debate and a vote on the U.S. Senate floor before lawmakers break for their annual, month-long summer recess in August. It needs 60 votes in the Senate to pass, meaning seven Democrats must support the bill before it advances for a similar process in a Republican-led House.