The Protect College Sports Act is one step closer to becoming a law after it passed a vote in the Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday. It’ll eventually come to the Senate floor for a full vote and, if passed, will go over to the House of Representatives for a similar process.
There are only 39 more days left in the current legislative session, which could be enough time for all of that to happen. But with the opposition to the bill and the upcoming midterm elections, the chances of this bill becoming law anytime soon is small.
John Ourand of Puck writes,” “The Senate doesn’t have the bandwidth to do this right now,” an unnamed Capitol Hill source told him. “I mean, I’ll even go a step further. I don’t think anything gets done in the Senate before November, let alone a controversial bill like this.”
The time crunch is a real problem to pass this bill, but as big a problem as is the opposition to it, mainly the Big Ten and SEC. One of the co-authors of the bill, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) had some harsh words for the two biggest conferences and their continued opposition.
First, let’s get one disclaimer out of the way, this isn’t a political thing. Cantwell could have any one of the 26 letters of the alphabet next to her name. It wouldn’t impact anything in this column.
Senator Maria Cantwell says the Big Ten and SEC opposition will not dictate Protect College Sports Act
"What we did today was say we’re not going to let the most powerful, richest conferences dictate to the rest of America what’s going to happen to 500,000 athletes." pic.twitter.com/MuFkzqfxAw
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace) June 18, 2026
“People have to wake up,” Cantwell, who’s been in the Senate for 25 years, said. “The politics of these [conference] commissioners moving around deck chairs [with realignment] and making millions of dollars themselves and not thinking about the broad interest to solve these problems has led us to this point. It’s time to listen to some other people.”
It is time to listen to other people, but not lawmakers like Cantwell. Also, did she forget who caused all of these problems to begin with?
It wasn’t the schools or conferences and it certainly wasn’t the players. It was the NCAA who caused these problems by committing antitrust violations for decades while hiding behind the idea of amateurism.
“Athletic directors and presidents are going to get their comeuppance from regents who are all the sudden saying, ‘What the hell are you doing sending these letters [opposing the bill]?'” Cantwell said. “The jig is going to be up on schools. You’re really letting the conference drive this discussion?”
Why not? The Big Ten and SEC drive nearly every discussion in college sports, most notably expanding the College Football Playoff. That’s because the other conferences gave them the power to decide the next iteration of expansion.
“What we did today is say we’re not going to let the most powerful and richest conferences dictate to the rest of America what’s going to happen to 500,000 athletes,” Cantwell said in her three-minute diatribe. “They need our help, they asked for it and today, we are giving it.”
No, no. The NCAA asked (begged) for Congress’ help, not the schools or conferences. In fact, if you were to poll college sports fans most would likely say they don’t want congress getting involved.
But part of being a politician is grandstanding and that’s what Cantwell was doing.
The SEC and Big Ten released a joint statement from each conference’s Presidents and Chancellors refuting Cantwell’s characterization of schools getting ready to deliver “comeuppance” to the conferences.
“Senator Cantwell’s characterization of the Big Ten and SEC engagement regarding the Protect College Sports Act does not accurately reflect the process that has occurred” the statement read. “From the time the legislation was introduced, our member universities have been engaged, vocal, and collaborative in evaluating the bill and identifying ways to improve it.”
School executives expressed the need for federal legislation, support for portions of the bill, such as athlete protections against agents, and conveyed a desired timeline for passage of Dec. 1, ahead of the FB transfer portal.
However, they noted concerns over the bill.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) June 9, 2026
Cantwell was right about one thing in her speech. It is time to start listening to other people. But it’s the group of people the NCAA doesn’t want to work with: the student-athletes.
Make no mistake about it. The NCAA went running to congress begging for an antitrust exemption because student-athletes are getting a big slice of the money. They have power to decide where they play.
The NCAA doesn’t like that and wants to go back a few years. It wants to control how much money student-athletes can earn. It wants to regulate where they can earn the money, too. But only student-athletes. Coaches and everyone else are free to make as much money as possible and leave jobs whenever they want.
Don’t let any political grandstanding obscure that. It’s all about money and power. Student-athletes have too much and the old guard (NCAA) wants it back.
