Time is running short for a bipartisan bill meant to bring federal order to college athletics. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Thursday that it does not look as though the Protect College Sports Act will reach the Senate floor before Congress breaks for its August recess.
The bill, which passed through the Senate Commerce Committee in June, was written by Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Maria Cantwell of Washington. It takes aim at name, image and likeness rules, eligibility issues, transfers and conference realignment. Neither the SEC nor the Big Ten has provided support for the bill in its current form.
Despite Thune's comments, people close to the situation in Washington pushed back on the idea that the bill is finished. "They're working on language through the night, and that's probably not how they'd be spending their Thursday night if there wasn't a chance," Cantwell spokesperson Ansley Lacitis told Fox News/OutKick.
As of Thursday evening, revised language being discussed had not yet been presented to either conference.
The SEC held its annual football kickoff event in Tampa, Florida this week, but the legislation dominated conversations. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey addressed the August timeline directly in an interview with OutKick on Wednesday. "I consider it a milestone (August timeline), the August recess," Sankey said, adding that if the bill dragged past recess, more pressing issues would compete for attention when Congress returned in September.
Both conferences have spent years lobbying Congress for help managing the legal chaos that followed court rulings on athlete compensation. That lobbying helped produce an earlier effort called the SCORE Act before this latest bill emerged. But the conferences now feel the current version corners them unfairly, particularly on two points.
First, the bill as written would restrict the ability of the SEC and Big Ten to add new member schools in the future. Second, a section dealing with the pooling of media rights has drawn sharp objections from conference leaders who say it could cost them money on future television deals.
Cruz and Cantwell have met repeatedly with stakeholders this week and are still working to move revised text forward before the recess. Whether they can resolve the conferences' objections and find floor time before Congress leaves remains uncertain as of Thursday night.
