{"id":102922,"date":"2026-06-29T10:13:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T16:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/?p=102922"},"modified":"2026-06-29T10:13:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T16:13:05","slug":"college-sports-bill-makes-way-through-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/2026\/06\/29\/college-sports-bill-makes-way-through-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"College Sports Bill Makes Way Through Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Shauneen Miranda, States Newsroom<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 A bipartisan bill to set national standards for college athletes\u2019 compensation<\/a> has cleared a major legislative hurdle but still faces roadblocks, including opposition from the largest college sports conferences, to becoming law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill<\/a>, which supporters say would \u201crestore order in college athletics\u201d after a chaotic few years following an explosion of payments to athletes, advanced 19-9 out of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee<\/a> in mid-June and can now make its way to the Senate floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill\u2019s support from senators of both parties, a host of college sports organizations and President Donald Trump \u2014 who has called the bill \u201cthe last chance to save College Sports\u201d \u2014 presents perhaps the best chance of federal policy to address issues resulting from the NCAA\u2019s 2021 guidelines that allowed student-athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, or NIL. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the measure is up against opposition from the powerful Big Ten and Southeastern conferences, and faces a narrow legislative window as Congress rushes toward its summer recess and the fall campaign season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commerce Committee\u2019s top members, Republican Chair Ted Cruz of Texas and ranking Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state, introduced the bill with GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware as co-sponsors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legislation is the latest congressional push to overhaul the college sports landscape, which continues to grapple with a patchwork of state NIL laws, gender inequity in NIL deals and the NCAA\u2019s controversial transfer portal, among other issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Too many variables\u2019 <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Just two Republicans \u2014 Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Todd Young of Indiana \u2014 voted against advancing the bill out of committee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven Democrats joined them: Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Gary Peters of Michigan, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Andy Kim of New Jersey and\u202fLisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the Senate floor, the bipartisan bill will need at least 60 senators to advance past the legislative filibuster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the bill\u2019s opponents, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, told States Newsroom the measure would too heavily involve the federal government in issues best left to conferences and athletic departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s got too many variables that the federal government get involved, and we don\u2019t need the federal government involved at all,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Alabama Republican and former SEC champion football coach said Congress should address eligibility and the transfer portal but that the rest should be left up to the college sports conferences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuberville introduced his own bill<\/a> in March aimed at tackling those two issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe federal government doesn\u2019t need to be in scheduling and conference alignments and 20-member commissions and all that,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s Obamacare 2.0 is what it is.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opposition from Big Ten, SEC <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The bill has also so far failed to garner the backing of the Big Ten and the SEC, who said their input was not \u201cadequately reflected\u201d<\/a> in the latest version of the bill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schmitt, an original co-sponsor of the bill who was closely involved in its crafting, told States Newsroom he\u2019s had \u201ca lot of conversations\u201d with Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, and respects their input, when asked about concerns on the two conferences\u2019 lack of support so far. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to work on it, and see if we can\u2019t get their support, so I\u2019m committed to that,\u201d the Missouri Republican added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A competing bill to address college athletes\u2019 compensation is stalled in the House after it was yanked from the voting schedule in May following unanimous opposition from the Congressional Black Caucus<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The influential Democratic bloc rallied behind the NAACP\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump support<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

But the measure has already drawn the praise and support of at least two dozen collegiate athletic conferences, along with the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee<\/a>, the National Governing Bodies Council and the Team USA Athletes\u2019 Commission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crucially, Trump has also backed the measure, which he said \u201cmay be the last chance to save College Sports, and Colleges themselves, before it\u2019s too late,\u201d in a June social media post<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump urged the House and Senate \u201cto come together to pass a final Bipartisan Law, that I can sign this summer, that reflects the views and input of both Chambers.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

National standard<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Among the major changes, the Senate bill would create a national NIL standard that preempts state laws, provide certain antitrust protections to the NCAA and establish a five-year eligibility timeline for athletes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest version<\/a> of the measure also tacks on additional protections for women\u2019s and Olympic sports and would require major institutions to maintain at least as many scholarship opportunities and roster spots for non-revenue-generating sports each year as they provided in the 2024-2025 academic year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill also prevents football coaches from leaving mid-season to coach another program. Athletes would also be guaranteed one transfer without losing eligibility. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shauneen Miranda, States Newsroom WASHINGTON \u2014 A bipartisan bill to set national standards for college athletes\u2019 compensation has cleared a major legislative hurdle but still faces roadblocks, including opposition from the largest college sports conferences, to becoming law.  The bill, which supporters say would \u201crestore order in college athletics\u201d after a chaotic few years following an explosion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1875,7329,3295],"class_list":["post-102922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national","tag-college-athletes","tag-college-sports","tag-u-s-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102923,"href":"http:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102922\/revisions\/102923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}