The top lawmakers on the Senate Commerce Committee released a bill Wednesday aimed at addressing the myriad issues with college athletics stemming from its largely ungoverned name, image and likeness era.
In a call with reporters, a Republican Commerce Committee aide said the panel plans to hold hearings and mark up the “Protect College Sports Act” in June. The measure, released along with a summary, was largely worked out by the panel’s GOP chairman and Democratic ranking member, Ted Cruz of Texas and Maria Cantwell of Washington.
The Cruz-Cantwell measure might be the only college sports overhaul measure with a chance of passing both chambers. A House version that had been crafted largely by Republican leaders, known as the “SCORE Act,” had to be pulled from the floor schedule last week.
The Congressional Black Caucus, in announcing opposition to the House bill, cited silence from major athletic conferences and institutions on Black voting rights and political power. And a handful of GOP members had concerns the House version would have been too tilted toward big schools and conferences.
One of the biggest differences between the bills is the Senate measure would etch into law more-specific NIL rules than the House version, which would give the NCAA more power to craft new nationwide guidelines.
