Protect College Sports Act gets renewed push and fresh opposition as college football returns

With college football in full swing, proponents of the Protect College Sports Act have launched an all-out blitz to push the legislation through the Senate before the chamber breaks in the coming weeks.

The bill aims to put guardrails around escalating spending in college sports as the industry struggles to adapt to a new model in which schools can pay players. Major conferences, Senate leadership and President Donald Trump have backed the bipartisan bill, yet it still faces pushback that could sink it before the chamber breaks this fall.

“This bill protects the billions of dollars that coaches and sports industry executives are making over the suppression of compensation for some of the most highly valued athletes in the world,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy told reporters Monday. “What we’re being asked to do is to basically allow colleges and conferences and the NCAA to illegally collude.”

Murphy’s opposition followed a high-profile weekend push by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a co-sponsor of the bill, who appeared Saturday on ESPN’s “College GameDay” to make the case for its passage. Cruz, a Republican, spent nearly 10 minutes explaining why he thinks the legislation is important as loud boos rang out from the University of Texas crowd behind him.

He is expected to hold a news conference about it later Monday.

Launched by Cruz and Democrat Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington in late May, the bill that has been discussed all summer is back in focus with a vote possible before Congress goes back into recess for the midterm elections.

High-profile supporters include billionaire Texas Tech alumnus Cody Campbell, former Alabama coach Nick Saban and current Colorado coach Deion Sanders, who have been featured in commercials across the country as football season begins.

“The Protect College Sports Act ends the NIL chaos in college athletics by protecting our student athletes and teams and safeguarding women’s sports and Olympic programs,” Saban says in an ad.

The bill has faced bipartisan pushback, however. Murphy was the most outspoken, saying he will work with those in the Senate against the bill to do everything in their power to ask colleagues to step back and take another shot at legislation that would institute reforms but not make the current system permanent at the expense of athletes’ health and safety.

“This bill doesn’t stop billionaires from spending money on athletic facilities,” Murphy said. “This money doesn’t stop billionaires from directly subsidizing the salaries of coaches. No, the only thing this bill does is to limit the relatively small slice of money in the system that goes to athletes.”

Murphy took issue with the concept of the situation being chaotic, now that athletes are getting paid for name, image and likeness rights. He said coaches and colleges are the ones most primarily affected, arguing this would not fix any of the broader problems when it comes to spending.

Joined by NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson, Murphy called it a civil rights issue, pointing out that many of the most valuable athletes are Black and those protecting the billions of dollars in the system are white. The Congressional Black Caucus has said it opposes the bill.

"This bill has nothing to do with protecting college sports," Johnson said. “Any college sports legislation must protect the whole ecosystem, including student athletes, universities, conferences and historically Black colleges and universities by guaranteeing athletes have a real voice, fair economic rights, long-term health and educational security.”

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Associated Press reporter Joey Cappelletti contributed to this reporter from Washington.