{"id":435961,"date":"2026-09-14T21:52:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T21:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/435961\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T21:52:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T21:52:24","slug":"protect-college-sports-act-gets-renewed-push-and-fresh-opposition-as-college-football-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/435961\/","title":{"rendered":"Protect College Sports Act gets renewed push and fresh opposition as college football returns"},"content":{"rendered":"

With college football in full swing, proponents of the Protect College Sports Act have launched an all-out blitz to push the legislation<\/a> through the Senate before the chamber breaks in the coming weeks. <\/p>\n

The bill aims to put guardrails around escalating spending in college sports as the industry struggles to adapt to a new model in which schools can pay players. Major conferences, Senate leadership and President Donald Trump have backed the bipartisan bill, yet it still faces pushback that could sink it before the chamber breaks this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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,\u201d Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said on a call with reporters Monday. \u201cWhat we\u2019re being asked to do is to basically allow colleges and conferences and the NCAA to illegally collude.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy\u2019s opposition followed a high-profile weekend push by Sen. Ted Cruz, a co-sponsor of the bill, who appeared Saturday on ESPN\u2019s \u201cCollege GameDay\u201d to make the case for its passage. Cruz, a Texas Republican, spent nearly 10 minutes explaining why he thinks the legislation is important as loud boos rang out from the University of Texas crowd behind him.<\/p>\n

Launched by<\/a> Cruz and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington in late May, the bill that has been discussed all summer<\/a> is back in focus with a vote possible before Congress goes back into recess for the midterm elections. <\/p>\n

Cruz, at a news conference in Washington alongside Cantwell, college athletes, coaches and other members of Congress, said he expects the Senate to vote on the bill this week or next. He is hoping it passes with resounding support from both sides of the aisle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we are going to get this done,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cI have a very high level of confidence that the House will pass this bill, and one of the best ways to do that is get a big bipartisan vote coming off the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n

From high-profile coaches to boosters, supporters are lining up<\/p>\n

High-profile supporters include billionaire Texas Tech alumnus Cody Campbell, former Alabama coach Nick Saban and current Colorado coach Deion Sanders, who have been featured in commercials across the country as football season begins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Protect College Sports Act ends the NIL chaos in college athletics by protecting our student-athletes and teams and safeguarding women\u2019s sports and Olympic programs,\u201d Saban says in an ad.<\/p>\n

Basketball coaches John Calipari of Arkansas, Mark Few of Gonzaga and Kelvin Sampson of Houston are also among those in favor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this clears up about 75-80% of our issues,\u201d Calipari said in Washington. \u201cNothing is perfect. This is a bite out of the apple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Echoing Calipari, Few said: \u201cThis bill might not be perfect, but it\u2019s far, far away the best thing we got out there right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill still faces a tight timeline and high vote threshold <\/p>\n

High-profile support hasn\u2019t been the issue for the bill since it was introduced months ago. After months of negotiations, the Big Ten and Southeastern conferences got on board with the bill in late July. But it remains unclear whether the legislation has the support needed to clear the Senate\u2019s 60-vote threshold.<\/p>\n

Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber. Democrats are trying to flip the Senate in November’s midterms, which can complicate the legislative agenda.<\/p>\n

Murphy has been among the most outspoken, saying he will work with those in the Senate who oppose the bill to do everything in their power to ask colleagues to step back and take another shot at legislation that would institute reforms but not make the current system permanent at the expense of athletes\u2019 health and safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill doesn\u2019t stop billionaires from spending money on athletic facilities,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cThis money doesn\u2019t stop billionaires from directly subsidizing the salaries of coaches. No, the only thing this bill does is to limit the relatively small slice of money in the system that goes to athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy took issue with the concept of the situation being chaotic, now that athletes are getting paid for name, image and likeness rights. He said coaches and colleges are the ones most primarily affected, arguing the bill would not fix any of the broader problems when it comes to spending.<\/p>\n

Joined by NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson, Murphy pointed out that many of the most valuable athletes are Black and those protecting the billions of dollars in the system are white. The Congressional Black Caucus opposes the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill has nothing to do with protecting college sports,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cAny 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press reporter Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report from Washington.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP college sports: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-sports<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With college football in full swing, proponents of the Protect College Sports Act have launched an all-out blitz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,17968,14638,145,163,48304,20778,287,154,7883],"class_list":["post-435961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-cody-campbell","tag-derrick-johnson","tag-donald-trump","tag-education","tag-maria-cantwell","tag-nick-saban","tag-politics","tag-sports","tag-ted-cruz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}