In a key moment, a Republican and a Democrat in the U.S. Senate agreed on legislation to amend the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, according to a discussion draft. Sens. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wa.) agreed on a bill expected to be filed next week.
The legislation would pave the way for conferences to pool their media rights via an antitrust exemption, according to a draft of the bill, and leagues would have an option to consolidate their rights. The news broke less than an hour after a White House roundtable on college sports ended.
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According to the discussion draft, the College Sports Competitiveness Act would make sure every school gets more revenue while also paving the way for a reward for conferences and teams that drive value. The bill would also create a board, made of 14 members, that “fairly represents the institutions that generate the most revenue and includes athletes, media experts, and academic institutions.”
Additionally, the College Sports Competitiveness Act would make sure out-of-market fans can watch their team wherever they want. In the process, the senators said the bill could generate billions of dollars in new revenue for college sports.
A potential amendment to the Sports Broadcasting Act has been discussed for some time, and a bill was previously filed to do so. A group of Senate Democrats introduced the SAFE Act in September 2025, though it did not receive bipartisan support. The College Sports Competitiveness Act marks the first time a Republican and Democrat have been on board with such an amendment.
Recently, though, there has been pushback to amending the Sports Broadcasting Act. The Big Ten and SEC notably penned a white paper taking aim at the idea and pushed back, arguing pooling of media rights would create centralized scheduling that could negatively impact cross-conference scheduling and the future of longstanding conference rivalries.
“College athletics thrives and enjoys zealous fan avidity precisely because teams and conferences have unique personalities with individual points of distinction. Homogenization of college athletics would likely diminish fan passions,” the document reads, in part. “College athletics doesn’t need government control and mandates. Market forces, intense competition and continued innovation are the natural drivers of the value of media rights.”
Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell has been a staunch support of amending the SBA and reiterated his stance during Friday’s White House roundtable. While the Big Ten and SEC did not mention him by name in the white paper, Campbell responded by saying the document was a “distraction.”