Big Ten, SEC miss deadline as college sports bill stalls
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- The Protect College Sports Act was still unfinished as of Wednesday night, with congressional staff, White House counsel and conference representatives working on final language after the Big Ten and SEC missed a 9 a.m. deadline set by Sens. Ted Cruz, Maria Cantwell and Eric Schmitt.
- The Big Ten athletic directors met for nearly four hours Wednesday morning in Chicago — starting before and ending nearly three hours after the deadline — and the conference later canceled its 7 p.m. call with presidents.
- The specific sticking point was the "associated entities" provision meant to close a loophole routing money through corporate sponsors and multimedia rights partners; sources said formal text addressing how associated entity deals would interact with the House settlement cap had not been presented to the conferences.
- The revised bill creates a retention pool exception of $20 million above the existing revenue-share cap, plus up to $5 million exclusively for women's institutional NIL, though several conference sources said they expected the $20 million figure to rise.
- Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey had spoken at least seven times by 4 p.m. Wednesday; Petitti pushed back on framing that the conferences were moving the goalposts, saying "it's not accurate."
- The four power conferences are preparing contingency plans including negotiating changes to the House v. NCAA settlement to mirror new rev-cap standards, or developing a self-governance model if the bill collapses.
- Title III of the revised bill — the "Ignite HBCUs Sports and Media Act" — was added Tuesday with no advance notice to conference leadership, and one source said it could shift vote math by attracting HBCU-connected members of Congress otherwise on the fence.
Why it matters: With Congress leaving for recess Aug. 7 and Senate Majority Leader John Thune needing to file for cloture by Thursday to realistically reach a vote, missing this window almost certainly scrambles the bill's political coalition heading into midterm season — leaving the four power conferences weighing contingency plans around the House settlement or self-governance while the NCAA's sought-after antitrust exemption remains out of reach.
