Reporter's Notebook: College sports bill enters legislative 'red zone' as season kicks off
The college football season kicks off this Saturday with North Carolina playing Texas Christian University in Dublin, Ireland.
This marks the start of a sprint until early April when college football and basketball practically compete on a near-daily basis with MLB, the NFL, the NBA and NHL.
This college football season begins with lawmakers falling short of a goal to pass a bill to alter the flow of money in college sports. And despite recent momentum, lawmakers may be lucky to pass the bill when the clock shows zeroes on April 5 in Detroit and the NCAA crowns its next basketball Final Four champion.
President Trump demanded that the Senate stay in session this month to pass a bipartisan college sports measure. That wasn’t going to happen simply because the bill’s not ready yet. The measure didn’t even secure a specific agreement for a test vote when the Senate returns in September. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said there was a deal for a vote at some point. However, an unrelated bill to regulate cryptocurrency marshaled a concrete time for a test vote on the afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 15. The college sports measure didn’t head into the August recess with that level of certainty.
But the one thing that is certain? Intercollegiate athletics face myriad problems.
"College sports right now is in crisis. It is chaos that is ripping college sports apart," said Cruz.
"I think that the arms race that exists now where people are just paying any amount of money from a system is not the right way to get this done," said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. She’s the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee and helped craft the bipartisan legislation with Cruz.
The measure establishes a national standard for athlete compensation — including NIL — for the use of name, image and likeness of athletes. It also limits them to one transfer without losing eligibility within a five-year window.
But understanding the bill’s remedies is challenging.
"[The bill] seemed pretty dense when I read it," yours truly observed to Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., one afternoon in a hallway of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
"It's dense as hell," replied Kennedy. "And that’s a legal term."
The measure raises the ceiling of money schools can use to compensate athletes. It essentially allows "third-party entities," like athletic footwear or equipment manufacturers like Under Armour or Nike, to pipeline additional money to schools.
Naturally, football and men’s basketball score most of the money under the current system. But lawmakers worry that women’s athletics and smaller sports like volleyball, lacrosse and soccer could evaporate unless Congress intervenes.
"It's the revenue from football and maybe basketball, but mostly football that funds everything else," said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.
The college sports bill seemed to gain traction in late July when the Big Ten and SEC — the most muscular of all college athletic conferences — announced their support of the legislation. Lawmakers could try to write a bill all they wanted, but with all due respect to the Mid-American Conference and Mountain West, the measure wouldn’t go anywhere unless the Big Ten and SEC were on board.
It was thought that the college sports package might get a test vote before the August recess, but a band of conservatives claimed the legislation fell short when it came to protecting women from competing against men.
"It looks like a bunch of trial lawyers drew this thing up," said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., a former Division I football coach who ran programs at Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas Tech and Cincinnati.
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Tuberville teamed up with Sens. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to craft an amendment going further in the legislation. Banks believed that the bill could undercut Indiana state law, which extends prohibitions on biological males competing in K-12 sports to college athletics. Banks expressed concern that the Cruz/Cantwell bill "would preempt Indiana’s law." The Indiana Republican asserted that he couldn’t support the legislation as written.
However, President Donald Trump torched those who said the bill failed to bar men from playing women’s sports at any level.
"Nobody has done more to protect Women Athletes than me — and this Bill CLEARLY protects the Laws in 27 States protecting Women's Sports, and banning Men from Women's Sports. Anyone who tells you differently is LYING!" thundered the president on Truth Social.
Trump worried that without adoption of this legislation, "Programs will be canceled, Women's and Olympic Sports will go away, the fans will be robbed, and Universities will go broke." He then asked the Senate to "stay in D.C. until it passes."
Despite the president’s advocacy, that wasn’t going to happen. However, the legislation does have a new set of downs — thanks to the Big Ten and SEC.
The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) opposes the bill. In a statement, the CBC said the package fails to incorporate "perspectives of Black athletes."
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., is the only former Division I football player in the Senate, competing as a tight end for Stanford. He opposes the bill.
"There are a lot of people who have substantive objections with that bill that should give us all pause," said Booker.
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So the Senate essentially took a timeout on the bill with the August recess. As any fan knows, timeouts are essential in sports. They allow teams to regroup. Rehydrate with water or Gatorade. Players to catch their breath. Coaches to draw up a special play to bring the team to victory.
It’s not known what the play call might be from Cruz, Cantwell or even Trump. Or if anything would work. Some skeptics believe the Senate’s decision to leave Washington without the locked-in test vote could cost the bill momentum — compared to the deal dictating the test vote on the cryptocurrency legislation.
The University of Oklahoma led the nation in red-zone efficiency last season. The Sooners scored touchdowns more than 97% of the time when moving the ball within 20 yards of the end zone.
Ninety-seven percent is a ridiculously efficient figure. The Philadelphia Eagles were the NFL’s best red zone team last season, scoring touchdowns around 70% of the time.
The U.S. Senate is not the gridiron. But it’s clear that the bill to regulate college sports has now entered the legislative red zone. A lot of legislation gets this close to the goal line, but senators rarely enjoy the success of the Sooners or Eagles when it comes to punching it in.
That’s why it’s possible that this legislative drive could stall — despite a steady march down the field.