A Senate committee approved a bill to regulate college athletics in a bipartisan vote Thursday with a slate of new amendments.
The Protect College Sports Act was passed by the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee by a 19-9 vote. Republican Sens. Todd Young (Ind.) and Roger Wicker (Mo.) joined seven Democrats in attempting to reject the measure.
The legislation would grant athletes rights to make money off of their name, image, and likeness, extend revenue-sharing requirements for colleges, and mandate that schools cover athletes’ medical costs. It also would give schools and the NCAA narrow antitrust protection.
The bill is a product of months of negotiations between Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) in an effort to regulate college athletics and stem a tide of lawsuits that have come against the NCAA and colleges in recent years.
Another collegiate athletics bill, the SCORE Act, failed to make it to the House floor in May after leadership pulled it due to a lack of support. The SCORE Act would have provided antitrust protections for the NCAA and allowed the association to create its own rules on similar aspects in Cruz and Cantwell’s bill such as eligibility, transfers, and athlete deals.
During opening statements at the committee markup Thursday, Cantwell and Cruz both said the legislation was a work in progress. Cantwell noted last-minute negotiations with the Big Ten Conference—which includes schools like UCLA, Ohio State University, and Penn State University—and lawmakers on the panel.
Last minute amendments by Cantwell and Cruz included an alteration that would prevent leagues with a certain amount of annual revenue from acquiring the assets, media rights, or membership of another conference.
The original version of the bill set that cap at $1 billion, which would have implicated only the Big Ten and Southeastern conferences, whereas the amended bill lowers it to $700 million, which would include the Big 12 and Atlantic Coast conferences.
“The new version includes a more balanced approach to the super league issue, rather than targeting any one conference or treating the SEC and Big Ten differently from everyone else,” Cruz said during opening statements. “It focuses on the broader principles we’re trying to protect: fair competition, broad opportunity, and a college sports system that remains open to more than a handful of the wealthiest programs.”
The Big Ten and Southeastern conferences said in a statement Thursday that they pushed for further revisions on “supporting student-athletes and stabilizing the college sports environment.”
“Despite our sustained engagement and good faith efforts, these critical revisions have not been accepted,” the conferences said.
Following the markup, Cruz told reporters he was confident the bill could pass the Senate and hopes to have it on the floor by July to have collegiate rules in place by the start of the school-year
“That seems doable,” he said.