A Capitol Hill Hail Mary: Ted Cruz Fasttracks Federal Overhaul To Salvage College Sports

After making significant concessions to the SEC and Big Ten, Senator Ted Cruz is confident his new bill to protect college sports will hit the Senate floor this week and could be signed by President Trump before the kickoff of a college football game this fall.The chances of the Protect College Sports Act becoming a reality have greatly improved now that, after weeks of negotiations, the two most powerful conferences in college sports are endorsing the bill aimed at bringing stability to the current chaos in college athletics.While all the details of the bill have not been made public, the legislation provides limited antitrust exemption for the NCAA and its schools to enforce a cap on Name, Image and Likeness payments to athletes and rules regarding eligibility and transfers.It also contains what’s being called “the Lane Kiffin Rule,” a provision that prohibits midseason football coaching moves. The penalty for a coach leaving his team midseason is a season-long suspension the following year. Mr. Kiffin accepted a $91 million contract to be the head coach at Louisiana State University and left the Ole Miss Rebels as they were preparing for the College Football Playoffs last season.Mr. Cruz, the Texas Republican and one of four sponsors of the bipartisan legislation, said he has spoken directly with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and President Trump multiple times and believes the Senate will stay in session until the bill passes.“This bill is going to pass,” Mr. Cruz said speaking on CBS Sports, “and it’s going to pass this week out of the Senate.”Later, he added, “It is my hope that President Trump will sign this bill into law on ‘College GameDay’ this fall when the House comes back and passes it with a big bipartisan vote, following the big bipartisan vote we’re going to get in the Senate, I believe, this week.”Despite Mr. Cruz’s confidence, time may be working against him. The Senate is scheduled to recess on Friday, though the session could be extended into the weekend. The upper chamber of Congress is already dealing with a spending bill, a budget resolution, and three or four other priority items before the annual summer recess.A vote on the Protect College Sports Act must first be vetted and scheduled, a process that could take several days. As of Monday afternoon, the language of the bill had to be finalized with its co-author, Senator Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, who says, “Final details are still being worked through.”The bill needs at least 60 votes to end the rules of debate so it can pass on a majority vote in the Senate. The House of Representatives must then pass the bill before heading to the president’s desk. Without a Senate vote before the August recess, the chances for the bill becoming law anytime soon would shrink considerably. With midterm elections looming in November, lawmakers will be focused more on campaigning than legislating.Chances of the bill passing the Senate improved greatly over the weekend after the powerful SEC and Big Ten Conferences blessed the legislation with their endorsement. A revision was a hike in the salary cap — the total amount schools can give to athletes — to $48.8 million from $21.3 million. It’s a figure that schools in the SEC and Big Ten can afford but prevents teams funded by mega-rich boosters like billionaire Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell or Mark Cuban at Indiana from out-spending everybody.“At the end of the day, everyone recognized No.1, the crisis, and No.2, that this bill is the only viable path to addressing the crisis,” Mr. Cruz told CBS Sports.Mr. Cruz said the Trump administration played a key role in creating the breakthrough. The New York Yankees president, Randy Levine, who serves as vice chairman on Mr. Trump’s Saving College Sports Roundtable, and Mr. Campbell, a businessman who co-chairs the president’s commission on college sports with Nick Saban, took part in extensive conversations with conference commissioners over the weekend.Mr. Trump offered his optimism on Monday saying, “The NIL, or whatever it is, is very close to getting solved.”Mr. Cruz said the coalition behind the bill now includes 27 athletic conferences encompassing more than 360 colleges and universities. The NCAA, NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, the players association for both the NFL and NBA, and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee are all on board.“Many of the hurdles this faced in the House were because of concerns the SEC and Big Ten had,” Mr. Cruz said. “And now broadening that coalition, I think it makes it much easier for Republicans and Democrats to support the bill.”Even Mr. Kiffin said he thinks a new rule is needed. “I hope that future coaches, they’re not put in that situation,” Mr. Kiffin told reporters during SEC Media Days. “In the NFL you’re never put in that situation because of the calendar and because of the rules of movement within seasons. I do hope for future people, that’s fixed so that you’re not in that same predicament.”

A Capitol Hill Hail Mary: Ted Cruz Fasttracks Federal Overhaul To Salvage College Sports

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