The Senate did not vote on the Protect College Sports Act before its August recess, putting the bill’s chances of passage in a precarious position once lawmakers return in September.
It is a blow to college sports leaders who have invested millions of dollars and thousands of hours lobbying for a federal solution to a series of issues, including player compensation, that have left administrators, coaches and others deeply frustrated.
It became, in many ways, the dominant offseason topic as powerful conference commissioners used their bully pulpits to advocate their desperate need for Congressional help. While admittedly imperfect to even its authors, the PCSA offered the greatest hope yet to college sports leaders in what has been a seven-year lobbying odyssey. Earlier optimism centered on a House of Representatives bill called the SCORE Act, which never materialized, as it never reached a formal vote.
“Our work is not over,” Sen. Ted Cruz, a co-author of the bill, said in a statement provided to CBS Sports. “The good news is that when the Senate returns in September, the Protect College Sports Act will be one of our first orders of business, having locked in a vote. We will get the bill to President Trump’s desk and deliver results for hundreds of thousands of student athletes and bring stability to college athletics.”
A key component of the PCSA was dramatically increasing the revenue-sharing cap to $48.8 million from its current $21.3 million, including a $22.5 million retention pool to retain current athletes. That increase would come with a harder salary cap and an emphasis on authentic name, image and likeness deals, eliminating the current strategy schools have used to circumvent the maximum revenue-sharing amount they are allowed to distribute under the House settlement.
Other notable inclusions were a limited antitrust exemption that allowed for standardized eligibility and a return to a one-time transfer, a cap of 5% on agent fees, and restrictions on further conference expansion to prevent a superconference beyond 19 schools.
There was real optimism that the bill could pass after the Big Ten and SEC agreed last Friday to publicly support it, following months of negotiations. Sen. Eric Schmitt, one of the co-sponsors of the bill, told CBS Sports on Monday that he was hopeful their support could lead to as many as 80 Senate votes in its favor. Sen. Ted Cruz, another of the bill’s co-sponsors, was similarly bullish at the start of the week. Cruz told CBS Sports the coalition behind the bill included 27 athletic conferences, the NCAA, NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic committees and the players unions for the NFL and NBA.
“This bill is going to pass,” Cruz told CBS Sports, “and it’s going to pass this week out of the Senate.”
Despite that confidence, it ran into a series of roadblocks, including opposition from southern Republican senators Tommy Tuberville and John Kennedy. Ten objections to the bill were filed by Republican senators on Friday, according to reports. Powerful groups, such as the Congressional Black Caucus, also came out against the PCSA this week at a critical juncture. It slowed the proposed bill’s momentum and made it increasingly difficult to pass before the Senate left for its month-plus recess.
President Trump called on the Senate to stay and vote on the bill. “Stop grandstanding, and get this done,” he said in a Truth Social post, but it ultimately never reached a floor vote before the Senate recessed early Saturday morning.
That sets the stage for a potential mid-September vote — the Senate returns on Sept. 14th — but the bill’s path to approval now appears more arduous. The closer we get to the November midterm elections, the more unlikely it is to pass, at least according to conventional thinking as elected officials turn their attention to campaigning. And even if it passes the Senate, it would still need to go to a vote in the House.
“You get into September and we’re going to have all kinds of partisan funding fights, and then you’re at the midterms,” Schmitt told CBS Sports earlier this week. “This really was the operative week, and I think the conferences understood this.”
Sen. Maria Cantwell, one of the bill’s co-sponsor, said in a statement to CBS Sports, “Time may have run out to protect college sports in August but there is plenty of time in September. I’m glad Senator Thune set a date certain in September to bring it up because the challenges facing student athletes and universities aren’t going away.”
The grand hope of a federal fix will again have to wait. As the college sports ecosystem continues to face a barrage of lawsuits and attacks from seemingly every direction, it again enters a football season without the protection it has so desperately sought.
