The Big Ten and SEC have struck a deal with federal lawmakers over legislation to regulate the college sports industry
Each of the league’s presidents and chancellors voted Friday evening to swing their support behind the Protect College Sports Act in a stunning and about-face development that thrusts the legislation forward. The two conferences announced the deal
Days of negotiations between U.S. senators and conference executives over the bill reached a crescendo on Friday, as league executives hurriedly scheduled meetings with their stakeholders in a shocking 11th-hour move
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The scramble comes a day after the conferences missed, for a second time in as many days, a deadline set by lawmakers to determine their position on a revised bill and follows aggressive involvement from the White House. U.S. president Donald Trump engaged with stakeholders through intermediaries on Thursday evening, stating his intent to publicly condemn Big Ten and SEC leaders for opposing the bill, presumably through a social media account followed by millions
Thursday night and Friday’s negotiations — between lawmakers and the power leagues, plus Notre Dame — resulted in the addition of language to the bill intended to strengthen a provision that prohibits schools from circumventing the athlete revenue-share cap. The language, shared with Yahoo Sports and spearheaded by New York Yankees president and Trump confidant Randy Levine, requires school-affiliated sponsors and apparel brands to enter into an attestation process to certify that their NIL agreements are kosher, not directed by the school and that the compensation doesn’t originate from the school. Similar language is in the bill already related to NIL deals from multimedia rights partners, like Learfield and Playfly.
The goal is to establish a more strict cap by including into the cap all affiliated NIL deals, aside from those authentic deals that are ratified through the attestation process. This is a key point for university presidents and conference commissioners in all four power leagues, especially considering that the legislation raises the athlete cap from $21.3 million to $48.8 million
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In an interview with Yahoo Sports, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), at the center of negotiations on Friday, says he expects a vote next week for the act on the Senate floor, possibly as early as Thursday and as late as Saturday
“We have to stay to get it done if that means Friday-Saturday,” Schmitt said
Schmitt presented and answered questions from SEC presidents on their call Friday night. He also held a call with Trump, informing him of the good news. “He’s happy,” the lawmaker said
Schmitt believes the bill could garner as many as 80 votes in the Senate
The SEC and Big Ten’s support is central to the bill’s passage
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And there was urgency to hold a vote vote next week before lawmakers leave for a monthlong recess. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) likely needs to file Monday for what’s called “cloture,” a formal procedural step that starts the process for a floor vote later in the week
Many predict that the bipartisan legislation has enough support to easily surpass the 60-vote threshold necessary in the Senate with the leagues throwing their weight behind the measure. While the bill would still need to pass the House of Representatives, Senate ratification would stand as one of the most historic moves in college sports history and a victorious moment for the NCAA’s seven-year lobbying effort for a congressional bill
The key components of the bill would grant the NCAA and conferences a limited antitrust exemption to re-implement the one-time transfer exception, standardize a five-year eligibility policy, ban professional athletes from returning to college, establish an agent registry and maximum fee (5%) and, as noted above, create a more strict athlete revenue-share cap
The revenue-share cap, for weeks now, has been at the center of the negotiations between conference officials and co-authors of the bill itself, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Schmitt, and their staffs
Opposed to collective bargaining and employment, college sports leaders are working to establish a harder cap like the NFL as opposed to the current state of affairs, where schools are exceeding the $21.3 million cap, in some cases, by triple that figure, by redirecting sponsorship and apparel cash from the athletic department to their roster. According to the bill, all athlete deals with university-contracted businesses (associated entities), such as multimedia rights partners, corporate sponsors and apparel brands, would be included in a school’s revenue-share payments and count against the cap.
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However, the legislation keeps open a lane for authentic deals by creating the attestation process
The cap itself is on the move
In revisions obtained by Yahoo Sports on Thursday, the legislation now creates a $22.5 million retention pool for schools to use on retaining athletes in addition to the $21.3 million original cap, plus $5 million to be spent only on women and non-revenue sports. That’s a $48.8 million cap, putting the figure more in line with the current market
But a question still lingers: Will schools skirt the certification process and still exceed the cap with disguised third-party deals?
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While the cap circumvention provision remains the top issue, there are others, such as a new, mysterious third section of the bill added just this week. Title III, called the “Ignite HBCUs Sports and Media Act,” is a competitive federal grant program to assist historically Black colleges and universities, though details of the act are unclear
In general, the bill is the opposite of the narrow version that college leaders wanted. It is incredibly specific, touching on several concepts, including conference expansion and coaching movement. The legislation caps power conference membership at 19 schools and requires those programs moving from one power league to another to operate as an independent for five years
The expansion provision may impact decisions from schools that are in position to move from the ACC to the SEC or Big Ten. Officials at Clemson, Miami, Florida State, North Carolina, Georgia Tech and others have expressed, some privately and other publicly in meetings, their opposition to the concept
The legislation also prohibits coaches from leaving their team before a season ends, something that lawmakers refer to as “the Lane Kiffin Rule.”
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As for dissension over the bill, the senators and their staff members believe they’ve made “major concessions” to appease the SEC and Big Ten, a staff member said this week in a statement
However, conference executives wanted more language prohibiting cap circumvention
Senators themselves pushed back against the notion that the cap circumvention provision isn’t strong enough. In fact, Cruz claimed that commissioners want to bar third-party companies associated with schools from striking any and all NIL deals with athletes, even kosher endorsement contracts. He contends language in the latest bill creates the hardest cap possible beyond violating a person’s NIL rights
“The cap is a hard cap. Full stop. That loophole is closed,” Cruz wrote in a post on X
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Later in the day, a Senate staff member sent a memo to conference commissioners outlining the ways that the bill closes the loophole, writing that the NCAA and College Sports Commission has “clear authority to establish and enforce rules ensuring that associated entity compensation is counted against the cap.”
The two leagues stood mostly alone against the legislation
Most other NCAA Division I conferences supported the act, including the NCAA itself, whose president, Charlie Baker, released a statement on Thursday imploring college leaders to “support the bill now.”
Timing of a vote may be an issue
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Next week’s Senate agenda is busy. Even if Thune believes the bill has the votes to file cloture on Monday evening, a plethora of issues clog floor time, including a spending bill, budget resolution, Russia sanctions and administrative nominations
Without reaching the floor next week, the legislation faces long odds once the Senate returns in September as the midterm election cycle cranks up
