The Protect College Sports Act Reaches the House, and House Leaders Want Changes
By faNILy ·
The Protect College Sports Act cleared the Senate 77-22 on Sept. 28. That was the easy part. The bill now sits with a House whose leaders say they like the idea but not the text, and the calendar is working against everyone.
Here's where things stand, based on reporting from ESPN and Roll Call published Oct. 5.
What the bill does
The bill came out of the Senate Commerce Committee, written by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.). According to Roll Call, it would create the first federal regulatory framework for college athletics: national rules for name, image and likeness deals, guidelines for schools that pay athletes directly, and limited antitrust protections for certain college sports governing bodies.
President Trump has publicly backed it and wants to sign it. Roll Call reports that Cruz wants the House to pass the Senate version in November so the president could sign it on ESPN's College GameDay before the football season ends.
The House's biggest objection: employee status
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) opposes the bill in its current form. The sticking point is that it takes no position on whether athletes are employees of their schools. Republicans wanted language ruling that out, and Roll Call reports that Cruz dropped the demand because Senate Democrats wouldn't accept it.
House Republicans are also wary of provisions requiring schools to report how much time athletes spend on their sport and how much money each sport brings in, ESPN reports. The worry is that those numbers could help future lawsuits arguing athletes are employees. Scalise also wants stronger antitrust protections for schools.
Still, he sounds like someone who expects a deal. As Roll Call reported, Scalise said:
We can fix it, and we're going to.
Realignment, rosters and rivalries
Employee status isn't the only fight. The bill caps conference membership at 20 schools, which would leave room for the Big Ten to add two and the SEC to add four. It also makes a school moving between Power 4 conferences spend three years unaffiliated before joining its new league.
Florida State, Clemson, Miami and North Carolina have asked House leadership to allow 22 teams per conference and drop the three-year wait, ESPN reports.
Other House Republicans object to provisions on how often schools play rivals and how long the season lasts. Rep. Tim Walberg, who chairs the House Education Committee, co-sponsored a separate bill capping foreign-born players at 20% of a roster. In a statement to ESPN, Walberg said, "I've been clear that there are still outstanding issues that need to be addressed."
The Congressional Black Caucus opposes the bill as written. It has 58 of its 62 members in the House and helped defeat the House's own SCORE Act. ESPN reports that its concerns include a grant pool for HBCU broadcast upgrades whose funding isn't guaranteed.
The clock
Time may be the biggest obstacle. ESPN counts 20 legislative days left in the House this year, spread over five weeks, with the last scheduled session day on Dec. 17. The House returns after the Nov. 3 midterm elections. If it doesn't vote before the year ends, the bill has to start over when a new Congress convenes in January.
And any House changes would send the bill back to the Senate. Cantwell has said she's open to that. An anonymous lobbyist told Roll Call that once the House goes down that road, "getting a final bill before the clock strikes midnight on December 31st becomes a lot harder."
Why fans should care
This is the bill that would set national NIL rules and shape how schools pay athletes. Whether it passes this year, gets rewritten, or starts over in 2027 will decide the rules of the road for the deals athletes sign. We'll keep watching the House calendar.