74 votes to 24
The US Senate voted Tuesday by 74 votes to 24 to move the Protect College Sports Act forward. The procedural vote clears the threat of a filibuster. It needed 60 votes to get there. The bill sailed past that mark.
The measure has backing from both sides. Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington and Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas are co-sponsoring it. “This bill puts college sports back in order. It helps women’s sports and Olympic sports, and it sets up a commission to look at the real future, which I believe should include collective bargaining,” Cantwell said before the vote. She added that athletes deserve revenue sharing and that the law would put it into federal law for the first time.
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What the bill would change
There is plenty in it. The law would standardize national rules on name, image and likeness, or NIL, which are now different from state to state. It would cap the share of revenue a school can share with athletes at 22%, which is about $21.5M today.
A $27.5M retention fund would be created to cut down on third-party interference in NIL deals. Athletes would keep their scholarship for 10 years after their eligibility ends, giving them time to finish their degree. Schools would no longer be allowed to pull a scholarship because of an injury or poor performance. Every athlete would also have the right to transfer and play immediately at the next school.
The so-called Lane Kiffin rule
One clause is aimed squarely at coaches. It would stop a football coach from jumping to another school in the middle of the season. It has already been nicknamed the Lane Kiffin rule, after the coach who left Ole Miss before last season’s College Football Playoff to take over at LSU.
The bill would also make the NCAA’s five-year eligibility rule permanent, while leaving each conference free to pool, or not pool, its media rights revenue.
The road is still a long one. After the Senate, the bill must get through the House of Representatives, where the vote is expected to be tight. If it clears both chambers, it will land on Donald Trump’s desk, and the president has said he would sign it.
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