For the first time in years, Congress might be in a position to affect college sports. A bipartisan Senate bill backed by the White House and major stakeholders is expected to be announced as soon as Friday, providing the clearest path yet for codifying NCAA rules into law and shielding the organization from antitrust challenge.
A memo obtained by CBS Sports shows a presidential committee on college sports is coordinating a unified letter of support. The bill itself is authored by Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Maria Cantwell, and it represents the first moment in years when Congress, the White House and stakeholders across college sports are genuinely aligned on the need for federal intervention.
The senators have worked in unison for at least the last two months on the bill, which is expected to supplant the long-gestating SCORE Act as the NCAA’s best chance yet to pass legislation in Congress, sources told CBS Sports. Cantwell’s office declined to comment on the memo or the bill’s timing.
Language for the bill is expected to be unveiled early next week, with committee hearings to follow in the coming weeks or months. The timeline reflects the urgency to move reform forward before Congress’s summer recess begins in August.
In the memo circulated to committee members, the presidential panel urges members to sign a letter backing the bill, a coordinated show of force intended to signal broad stakeholder alignment.
The committee is chaired by New York Yankees president Randy Levine and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was tasked by President Donald Trump to lead a commission to explore college sports reform. Trump formed five committees on college sports in March to introduce widespread reform across the NCAA. Twenty-nine individuals hailing from the government, MLB, NBA, NFL and college sports are on those committees, which have met several times and last week compiled a draft with preliminary ideas on how to reform college athletics.
The SCORE Act is set to be on the House floor next week, though lawmakers believe it will fall short of the 60 votes needed to clear the Senate, which is why the White House is now pushing this separate, bipartisan alternative.
The bi-partisan legislation is college athletics’ best bet yet to codify rules and seek antitrust protections, but the process could still be lengthy. The bill will need to be presented for discussion at the committee level on Capitol Hill before reaching the Senate floor.
Last week, the White House committee tasked with reforming college athletics circulated a draft of ideas that suggested capping coaches’ salaries, creating a Group of Six playoff and shielding the NCAA from antitrust litigation.
Language for the bipartisan bill is expected to be unveiled early next week. The exact contents of the Cantwell-Cruz bill remain unclear, but the memo suggests it will incorporate elements from the White House committee’s draft framework, including antitrust protections and explicit prohibitions on NIL-based salary-cap circumvention, which the White House framework identified as booster collectives’ primary workaround to the $20.5 million compensation cap.
Expect significant differences from the SCORE Act, which was primarily a rules-codification vehicle stemming from the House settlement.
