A bipartisan Senate bill has been making some major headlines\u00a0this week during the\u00a0SEC Spring Meetings\u00a0and has been agreed upon by\u00a0Sens.\u00a0Ted Cruz\u00a0(R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) to attempt to get a handle on the chaos of college sports.<\/p>\n
The Protect College Sports Act, among numerous other things, is aimed to put a salary cap on what teams can spend in NIL money. It would also give the NCAA limited antitrust exemption to be able to better enforce its own rules without fear of legal recourse from programs and athletes when decisions don\u2019t go their way.<\/p>\n
Interestingly though, the bill goes well beyond that and actually includes several provisions which would be extremely popular with fans if it was actually able to be signed into law.<\/p>\n
Notably, it would limit athletes\u2019 ability to transfer schools to just one time, as well as establishing a hard five-year eligibility rule and a complete prohibition on professional players participating in college athletics.<\/p>\n
The most unique aspect though \u2014 and questionable as to whether it could actually be enforced \u2014 is what has become known as the \u2018Lane Kiffin Rule,\u2019 which would prevent a coach from leaving during the middle of a season.<\/p>\n
How this would actually operate is a question on everyone\u2019s mind given what the current calendar looks like. But, if the portal window and signing day date could be changed, then it would certainly be popular to not have coaches have to make agonizing decisions like Kiffin did.<\/p>\n
The Protect College Sports Act is both creating a registry for agents and capping their fees to 5 percent of player NIL contracts. Additionally, schools will have the opportunity to collectively pool media rights deals, something that 75 percent of the 138 FBS schools must agree to do.<\/p>\n
While the Big 10 and SEC would be against this, a unanimous vote from all the other programs would reach the 75 percent needed to outweigh the two super conferences.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, there are going to be a number of hurdles to clear with time of the essence in the Senate\u00a0with the midterms coming up, but it\u2019s safe to say this is one of the most significant steps that has been taken so far to try to get a handle on college sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"