Cruz, Cantwell seek to get their college sports bill over the goal line

A landmark piece of legislation seeking to regulate the big business of college sports is expected to face a crucial vote in the Senate when lawmakers return from recess next month.   

The Protect College Sports Act championed by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) gained steam this summer thanks to the support of President Trump, the NCAA and a number of current and former college coaches.

Backers of the bill argue the system governing major college athletics is “broken” and benefits a smaller number of large universities that can afford to lure top athletes away from smaller schools with the promise of name, image and likeness (NIL) money.

The only way to fix these issues, the NCAA and its allies say, is through intervention by Congress.

It’s unclear whether the Cruz-Cantwell effort will be successful.

A key sticking point is the sweeping antitrust protection it would grant the NCAA. The protection would shield the NCAA from litigation around key issues like the transfer portal, revenue sharing and caps on NIL that can be paid to student-athletes.  

Critics of the bill, and others like it that have been proposed on Capitol Hill, contend it would hand the NCAA and top conferences too much power over smaller schools and limit student-athlete earning potential.  

Some lawmakers, meanwhile, have raised concern with the bill’s provisions regarding funding for women’s and Olympic sports, which at many schools are heavily subsidized by big money football and basketball programs.  

The legislation appeared headed for the Senate floor after Cruz and Cantwell in August won the support of the NCAA’s top two conferences, the Southeastern Conference and Big Ten, which had held out on the bill for months.  

But a vote at the end of the Senate’s work period in August on the proposal was tabled after a group of GOP lawmakers, led by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), said they would not vote for it out of concern the bill would override state laws banning transgender athletes in women’s sports.  

“Some are claiming this bill overrides state laws protecting women’s sports. It does not. I drafted this legislation to preserve those laws, not weaken them. It leaves Title IX untouched and does nothing to disturb the 27 state laws protecting women’s sports,” Cruz wrote in a statement pushing back on Hawley. “While critics debate a legal theory the text does not support, schools are eliminating women’s and Olympic sports, and college athletics is descending further into chaos. We may not get another chance to save the college sports we........

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