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Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz is throwing a flag on Democrats’ new college sports proposal.
The Texas Republican told Semafor on Tuesday that he plans to introduce bipartisan legislation governing college athletics. And he criticized the current Democratic alternative, led by Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., as “a partisan bill that is designed not to pass” and a bid “to scuttle real bipartisan legislation to fix the crisis in college sports.”
“The chances of a bill like that passing are zero, and everyone who’s on that bill knows it,” Cruz said of the Democratic bill introduced on Monday.
Cruz added that he’s already in talks with other Senate Democrats on a compromise that he hopes can avert a cataclysm in college athletics as universities change the way they handle athlete compensation and transfers.
Athletes can be paid directly by universities in addition to so-called name, image and likeness deals; they can also now transfer schools without sitting out a year now. It’s risking a rise in fan apathy as longtime rivalries fade and rosters turn over every season thanks to players exercising their power to seek more lucrative deals at other schools.
There’s broad agreement in Congress that something needs to be done about college sports after several years of rapid changes, but the details are proving a challenge for lawmakers.
That’s in part because the NCAA governs such a wide range of schools, from nationally televised powerhouses like Alabama and Michigan down to Division II and III schools, whose economics are of an entirely different scale. On top of that, regional conferences have realigned into national behemoths like the Big 10.
“We are facing a situation that keeps getting worse every day in college sports; every day another school cancels a program. Division II and III schools are in absolute crisis,” Cruz said. “That’s not benefiting the students. It’s not benefiting the schools. It’s not benefiting the fans.”
Cantwell’s bill would establish a committee to negotiate schools’ media rights as a group, give football and basketball broadcasting rights to local stations, limit the transfer portal to two transfers without sitting out a year, guarantee scholarships, and federalize NIL rights. The AFL-CIO and the National Association of Broadcasters were among the groups endorsing the bill on Tuesday.
Cantwell said her bill gives a “fair shake for everyone, instead of the biggest, richest schools.”
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Cantwell previously blasted a House proposal called the SCORE Act, now stalled, that would nationalize NIL regulations she said gave too much power to the Big 10 and SEC while leaving behind smaller schools.
The House bill also gives the NCAA some immunity from antitrust suits to avoid a legal patchwork of rules and regulations.
Cantwell’s attack on the House bill slowed down Democratic momentum for it. As a result, it may now be up to the Senate to find a bill that can get 60 votes. Cruz is making clear that whatever does pass won’t look anything like her bill.
He said the Democratic bill’s omission of antitrust protections for the NCAA would lead to continued litigation in college sports, “crippling universities, conferences, the NCAA.”
“The Cruz antitrust argument already lost in the Supreme Court, 9-0,” Cantwell said in response to Cruz’s criticisms.
Cruz also criticized Cantwell’s bill for not making clear that student athletes aren’t employees. Republicans are also worried the Democratic bill’s attempt to rewrite the Sports Broadcasting Act and media rights could make it impossible to pass new legislation; Cantwell argues that creating a committee on media revenue would bring in more money for schools.
Cruz said he’s spent hundreds of hours discussing a potential bipartisan bill with Senate Democrats. That legislation could be rolled out in the coming days, he predicted, although the pending government shutdown makes unrelated bipartisan bills harder to pass.
“College sports is too important,” Cruz said. “It means too much to too many people for us to allow it to be destroyed.”
Notable
- Drafted athletes can go back to college if they don’t like the team that selected them under Cantwell’s bill, USA Today reports.
- The Congressional Black Caucus is in discussions about amending the House’s SCORE Act, according to Yahoo! Sports.