Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Thursday the Protect College Sports Act is not likely to reach the floor for a vote before the session ends in two weeks.
The bipartisan bill introduced in May by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) addresses a wide range of issues in college sports, including antitrust exemptions that would allow the NCAA and member conferences to make rules on athlete eligibility, transfers and player compensation while shielding them from the onslaught of legal challenges that have limited the regulation of college sports.
Cruz and Cantwell need 60 votes to pass the bill, but to get it to the floor, leadership would like to see robust support. Right now, that doesn’t exist. Stakeholders have been working to bring the bill for a full Senate vote prior to the Aug. 8 recess in hopes of then passing it through the House and sending it to President Donald Trump to be signed into law this fall before the November midterm elections.
Trump and the White House, which hosted a presidential roundtable on college sports in March, are supportive of the Protect College Sports Act, but the midterm elections represent a de facto deadline. The closer it gets to the midterms, the less likely it is that any legislation will pass through Congress, especially a bipartisan bill.
Blair Taylor, spokeswoman for Cruz, said the senators are still working diligently to bring a bill to the floor.
“They’re working on language through the night, and that’s probably not how they’d spend their Thursday night if there wasn’t a chance,” said Ansley Lacitis, spokeswoman for Cantwell.
The bill, which advanced out of committee last month, has drawn support from the NCAA and many Division I conferences, but not the Big Ten and SEC, the wealthiest and most powerful leagues. Advancing through committee markup is the furthest a college sports bill has made it in Congress; a House bill called the SCORE Act advanced through committee last year but never got to the floor for a vote.
Big Ten and SEC officials have been working with Cruz, Cantwell and other co-sponsors in recent weeks to modify the bill. The two conferences have a variety of issues with the bill, including spending limits it would impose on player compensation, restrictions on conference expansion, voluntary pooling of media rights and a future “super league” formed by outside entities.
Lawmakers have said there has been some progress on those negotiations, but the bigger issue appears to be the legislative calendar.
College sports leaders have been asking Congress for a federal law to help bring some order to college sports for several years. They have also spent millions of dollars on lobbying.
If Congress doesn’t act, how the NCAA and conferences move forward is unclear. The SEC has been vocal about the possibility of taking on more governance and making some of its own rules — and maybe even breaking away from the NCAA altogether.
The Big Ten has also discussed self-governance internally if there is no legislative solution.
Big Ten and SEC support for the bill would likely increase its chances of getting to the floor, but with time winding down on the session, even a breakthrough might come too late.
