Senate vote on Protect College Sports Act expected this week or next, September 15-22

Sen. Ted Cruz, co-sponsor of the Protect College Sports Act, expects the Senate to vote on the bill this week or next, according to ESPN's reporting. The bipartisan legislation, launched by Cruz and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington in late May, aims to regulate NIL spending and athlete compensation in college sports.

The bill has secured backing from major conferences, Senate leadership, and President Donald Trump. The Big Ten and Southeastern conferences endorsed the legislation in late July after months of negotiations. Among prominent supporters are billionaire Texas Tech alumnus Cody Campbell, former Alabama coach Nick Saban, current Colorado coach Deion Sanders, and basketball coaches John Calipari of Arkansas, Mark Few of Gonzaga, and Kelvin Sampson of Houston.

Saban said in an advertisement: "The Protect College Sports Act ends the NIL chaos in college athletics by protecting our student-athletes and teams and safeguarding women's sports and Olympic programs." Calipari stated: "I think this clears up about 75-80% of our issues. Nothing is perfect. This is a bite out of the apple." Few said: "This bill might not be perfect, but it's far, far away the best thing we got out there right now."

Cruz appeared Saturday on ESPN's College GameDay to advocate for the bill, spending nearly 10 minutes explaining its merits as the University of Texas crowd booed loudly. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 Senate majority, but it remains unclear whether the legislation has the support needed to clear the 60-vote threshold required for passage, per ESPN.

Opposition has emerged from Democratic and civil rights organizations. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said on a call with reporters Monday: "This bill protects the billions of dollars that coaches and sports industry executives are making over the suppression of compensation for some of the most highly valued athletes in the world." He added: "What we're being asked to do is to basically allow colleges and conferences and the NCAA to illegally collude." Murphy noted that the bill does not address billionaire spending on athletic facilities or coach salaries, stating: "The only thing this bill does is to limit the relatively small slice of money in the system that goes to athletes."

The Congressional Black Caucus opposes the bill. NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson said: "This bill has nothing to do with protecting college sports. Any college sports legislation must protect the whole ecosystem, including student-athletes, universities, conferences and historically Black colleges and universities by guaranteeing athletes have a real voice, fair economic rights, long-term health and educational security." Murphy and Johnson pointed out that many of the most valuable athletes are Black while those protecting the system are white.

Espn's parent company Disney is part of a group lobbying the U.S. government to pass the act, according to Open Secrets reporting. Bomani Jones criticized ESPN for airing Cruz's uncontested pitch on College GameDay without opposing perspectives, saying: "There are serious consequences to what ESPN chose to do. What they did was flatly wrong, and it is possible that it will contribute to limiting the ability of players to cash in... I think those are pretty dire consequences, and I think that there should be a pretty loud uproar about that."

Two Republicans, Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan and Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio, introduced a separate bill Monday to limit international athletes to no more than 20 percent of each varsity sports team. Walberg said: "American colleges and universities should first and foremost provide opportunities for American students."