WASHINGTON — A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators promoted their legislation Wednesday to set national standards for college athletes’ compensation, calling the compromise bill the best available option.
GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state — the top members of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the matter — convened a roundtable of coaches, leaders and college athletes over their bill introduced this month to “restore order in college athletics.”
The sweeping bill is meant to combat many of the biggest challenges in college sports, but faces a long road to becoming law amid opposition from key figures, including major sports conferences.
Cruz noted the opposition, but urged support for the bipartisan compromise.
“My view is this is the only train leaving the station, which is, this bill, I believe, has a real prospect of passage — it is bipartisan,” said Cruz, acknowledging that at least 60 senators are needed to advance a bill past the filibuster.
Republicans hold just 53 seats.
“In my view, anyone who’s a critic, anyone who is attacking this bill, has the burden of saying, ‘What’s the alternative?’” he added.
Cantwell said that while she and Cruz disagree on several things, even on issues within the committee’s jurisdiction, “we agree on this issue of setting some rules.”
The Washington state Democrat said she and Cruz were “kind of disappointed that this universe of institutions and organizations couldn’t get there, but we’re an example of people who don’t agree but can agree.”
New reality in college sports
The bill marks the latest congressional push to overhaul the college sports world, which continues to grapple with the fallout from the NCAA’s 2021 guidelines that allowed student-athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, or NIL.
Colleges, businesses and marketers are also wrestling with a patchwork of state NIL laws, gender inequity in NIL deals and the NCAA’s controversial transfer portal, among other issues.
Among several major changes, the Senate bill would create a national NIL standard that preempts the patchwork of state laws, provides certain antitrust protections to the NCAA and college sports conferences and establishes a five-year eligibility timeline for athletes.
GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware co-sponsored the bill.
Sherika Montgomery, commissioner of the Big South Conference, said “the things that are enclosed (in the bill) will provide a level of stability as well as sustainability, while also providing an opportunity and a pathway for success that I know our current 4,300 student-athletes really value.”
The conference includes nine member institutions across North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia and is affiliated with NCAA’s Division I.
Montgomery pointed to a patchwork of state laws just in those three states that have prompted a “level of instability,” noting that “as our coaches recruit not only against themselves in our conference, but across other coaches in those respective states, there has been a widening of the gap with the current rules that we have.”
Under the bill, athletes would also be guaranteed one transfer without losing eligibility.
Gannon Flynn, a swimmer at Boston University, said the bill “does a good job of regulating the transfer industry,” adding that “as you see more and more athletes do one year, two years (at a school), transfer four, five, six times, it’s impossible to get those degrees.”
When asked by Cruz what would be the consequences of Congress doing nothing, Flynn said “we will continue to see rules that the NCAA still has, one by one, start to get knocked down by the courts every time someone does something against the rule, and then goes to the judge of their choice to rule in their favor, and then we have each state regulating to how it helps them.”
He added: “If we continue down this route, we’re not going to have rules, there’s going to be no integrity left in the game, and without clear, enforceable and fair rules, then there’s no point in us even competing.”
Mounting opposition
Though members of Wednesday’s roundtable pointed to the “stability” the bill could bring to college athletics, the measure already faces pushback from powerful athletic organizations such as the Big Ten and Southeastern conferences, which have said they do not support the bill as drafted and that the legislation “leaves critical issues unresolved.”
Cruz and Cantwell later met with the presidents and chancellors of schools in both conferences.
The Congressional Black Caucus also sent a letter this month to Cruz and Cantwell urging the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to pause consideration of the bill and related college sports legislation “until athletic leaders meaningfully engage with concerns about attacks on Black political representation.”
The major voting bloc rallied behind the NAACP’s call to push back against GOP-led redistricting efforts in Southern states via college sports, including a boycott of public universities by athletes and supporters.
A competing bill to address college athletes’ compensation remains stalled in the House after being yanked from the voting schedule in May following unanimous opposition from the caucus.
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