After years of upheaval and a late push by a bi-partisan effort led By Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Senator maria Cantwell (D-Washington), the act looked like the best chance for any legislation to be passed. This optimism completely disappeared when it looked like the Big Ten and SEC were bent on torpedoing any such legislation if they were not the main beneficiaries.
After not finding agreement before the end of Thursday, it looked as though it would have to wait until after the summer break at the earliest, to get a vote.
But, late on Friday night, according to Yahoo! Sports Ross Dellenger, the School Presidents and Chancellors voted to accept the revisions made by Sen. Cruz and Sen. Cantwell over Tuesday and Wednesday.
These concessions included a $25 million pool which will be used to retain players but cannot be used to get players from the portal. Other concessions included are that entities are not allowed to acquire media rights to create another new conference and a prohibition on paying recruits before enrollment.
On Friday night, the Big Ten and SEC sent out a joint statement saying, âThe Big Ten conference and Southeastern conference support the Protect College Sports Act, as currently drafted following detailed and productive negotiations with Senators Cruz, Cantrell and Schmitt and their respective staffs. We appreciate the substantial work that has gone into this effortâ
A source told On3 Sports that, âmajor concessions were made overnight: (At this point, with every passing minute, odds are slimmer that we can move the bill before the August recess. We have been working night and day to make the revisions they said they needed and we need an answer that wasnât a superficial deadline. Thereâs a lot that goes into passing legislation. A lot of work behind the scenes and that just takes time.:
So, it finally looks like there is legislation to attempt to bring college sports back into normalcy. There are a lot of good things in this act. But there are also a lot which will have to be changed in the near future. For now, we will be forced to see how good or bad the bill really is.
While this looks to be a band-aid on an amputated arm, it is the beginning of what will be even more years of litigation to get things closer to good. The NCAA had their rule over college sports for decades. With the players now being empowered to make change, it is finally happening.
None of the entities involved will be completely happy with how this turns out. That, as they say, is how you know that negotiations worked. When no one gets exactly what they want but everyone gets something they need.
Now that this has gone as far as it can for the moment, the next thing on the minds of the Big Ten conference and the SEC will be whether the playoffs will expand to 16 teams or directly increase to 24. Something which will be directly affected by the amount of money to be made by the Big Ten and SEC and if it is more than if they continue to hold a Conference Title Game. But, now with congress out of the way, it is up to the Big Ten and the SEC to decide on what is good for the rest of the sport. This surely cannot go wrong. Can it?
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