WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday passed a bipartisan bill aimed at remaking college sports regulations, clearing a major hurdle and sending it to the House of Representatives.
The Protect College Sports Act passed in the Senate by a 77-22 margin, The New York Times reported. It heads to the House, which is not scheduled to vote on any legislation until after the midterm elections in November, according to ESPN.
If the House does not pass the bill during its lame-duck session when legislators return to Washington, the full process would have to return to the starting line when the new Congress is seated in January, the cable sports website reported.
The bill would limit college athletes to one transfer before they would have to sit out a season, which had been the case before court rulings opened the transfer portal, the Times reported. It also would cap eligibility for athletes at five years.
The bill also would protect the rights of college athletes to be compensated for their “name, image and likeness” and ensure guarantees for scholarships and health care.
The NCAA would receive a limited antitrust exemption, according to the bill. It will also try to discourage schools from skipping from one conference to another and places new restrictions on agents for college athletes, according to the newspaper.
The bipartisan bill was co-sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; and Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., USA Today reported.
“From the beginning, our objective was not to squeak by with 60 or 61 votes but to have a big bipartisan vote that demonstrates the importance of stepping in and saving and preserving college sports,” Cruz told reporters Monday night. “President Trump is eager to sign this legislation.”
“Sports is about any given Saturday,” Cantwell said, according to the Times. “It is not about whether you have a billionaire in your backyard. It is about whether you can coach and recruit and develop and maintain and have academic performance and have fairness.”
“This is a really big deal,” President Donald Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “It will not only save college sports, it will save the colleges themselves.”
Opponents of the bill called it unfair to players and criticized the lack of clarity about future collective bargaining, the newspaper reported. Several amendments proposed by opponents were defeated.
“It’s a bill for the control and power of the NCAA and member institutions,” said Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., a top foe of the legislation. “It is not about athletes who are winning their rights, winning court cases, gaining leverage, and now are having that taken away from them.”
“The colleges and the conferences and the boosters flooded this place,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., another opponent. “It is a hard slog when the players have no money and no representation. Ultimately, this is going to be really bad for student athletes and destructive of the college sports model because these kids aren’t going to stick around very long if they are not getting paid what they are worth.”
In a statement, NCAA president Charlie Baker applauded the “massive bipartisan vote.”
“Student-athletes from across the country and all three NCAA Divisions worked hard to get this legislation moving,” Baker said. “Now the bill moves to the U.S. House of Representatives and there is much work left to do to ensure student-athlete benefits are codified into federal law and future generations of young people can access those benefits and use college sports as the launching point for their careers.”