The U.S. Senate voted 77 to 22 in a motion to proceed with the Protect College Sports Act (PCSA) to go to the chamber floor for consideration.
With the bill headed to the Senate floor for deliberation, a final vote may happen as soon as next week. Senators can still offer amendments to the bill, while Senate leaders have filed cloture on a Cruz-Cantwell substitute amendment, an updated version of PCSA that would replace the original text, and the bill itself.
The cloture vote would require 60 senators’ approval to limit debate and move on to votes for the amendment and final passage.
If the bill makes it through the Senate, the House would not consider it until November, as the House took an early recess this week for the midterm elections.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who cosponsored the bill with Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), said the updated version “incorporates feedback and ideas from our Republican and Democrat colleagues who have been meeting with student-athletes and others about how to improve upon a sensible piece of legislation.”
“For the hundreds of thousands of student-athletes and millions of fans tired of the chaos, we are going to get this done,” he said.
In the bill’s updated version, the NCAA will be responsible for making sure schools follow the bill’s health, wellness, and safety standards.
The new version also will not interfere with pending legal cases and claims for damages related to past conduct, without affecting the bill’s eligibility and compensation rules.
PCSA still allows a college athlete only five seasons of eligibility within a five-year period.
For colleges in Power Four conferences that are trying to change conferences, the updated PCSA will require them to wait three years as an independent school not affiliated with a conference, instead of five years.
This rule would expire after six years, which means a college in a Power Four conference would not have to wait three years before joining a new Power Four conference. The bill still prevents Big Four conferences from having more than 19 member schools.
According to CBS Sports, the six-year expiration date coincides with when numerous Big Four conference media rights deals will expire. The Big Ten and Big 12’s media rights deals expire in 2030 and 2031, respectively. The SEC’s media rights deal expires in 2034, and the ACC’s media rights deal expires in 2036.
Media deals for the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament and College Football Playoff expire in 2032.
The bill’s new version would also allow conferences to keep their current media rights deals.
To qualify for $22.5 million in retention fund spending, schools must meet benchmarks for student-athlete graduation and academics, according to the updated PCSA. These schools could potentially spend up to $27.5 million if they meet additional women’s and non-revenue-sports requirements.
The updated bill will also study what happens if student-athletes are given financial interests in a college athletic program and review the injuries and deaths of student-athletes.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected].
