Senate to Vote on Protect College Sports Act Monday — SkimNews
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- The Protect College Sports Act is scheduled for a final Senate vote Monday at 5:30 p.m. ET, with the bill expected to clear after procedural votes already topped 70 in favor.
- The legislation grants the NCAA and its members a limited antitrust exemption, codifies the House v. NCAA settlement, and lets schools pay athletes from three buckets — a $21.6 million revenue-sharing cap, a $22.5 million retention fund, and $5 million for Olympic and women's sports — totaling up to $50 million annually, more than double the prior cap.
- A September rewrite loosened conference realignment by cutting the power-conference waiting period from five years to three, while preserving the 19-member cap and super-league ban that effectively block private equity from launching a rival circuit.
- More than 35 amendments were filed but none received roll call votes, including a Florida Sen. Ashley Moody proposal aimed at the ACC's grant-of-rights fights, a Murphy-Booker $5 million coach-pay cap, and Rand Paul's blanket antitrust exemption killed by Majority Whip John Barrasso.
- Opposition is split: Democrats divided 25-22 on cloture, while the NAACP, AFL-CIO, Congressional Black Caucus, Athletes.org and the College Football Players Association argue the bill was drafted without athlete input — CFBPA's Jason Stahl told Fox Sports, "This is a bill being made without athletes' input, and it reads like that."
- The House is not expected back until Nov. 9 — after the midterm elections — creating a narrow Jan. 3 deadline before a new Congress is sworn in; conferences are already drafting contingency self-governance models with up to $50 million in player payments if the bill fails.
- The employee question — whether college athletes can be classified as employees, the central unresolved issue in the industry for five years — is not addressed in the final bill.
Why it matters: Congress is poised for its biggest intervention in college sports in years — a limited NCAA antitrust shield and a federally codified $50 million athlete payment structure — but the House won't return until after the November midterms, leaving a narrow Jan. 3 deadline. Athletes remain locked out of negotiations, and the unresolved employee question keeps the industry's biggest legal fight alive regardless of the vote.
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