Key Sens. Cruz, Cantwell look to break college sports logjam in Congress with a bipartisan bill

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Gabriela Passos, File)

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., speaks during a panel discussion on Capitol Hill, Feb. 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner, File)

Big Ten Conference Commissioner Tony Petitti speaks during an news conference at the Big Ten Conference NCAA college football media days at Lucas Oil Stadium, July 26, 2023, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)

Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips smiles during an NCAA college football news conference at the ACC media days, July 22, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two key senators involved in a long-simmering debate over fixing college sports will introduce a bipartisan bill designed to break a congressional logjam that would regulate payments to players, limit them to one “free” transfer over their careers and create a “Lane Kiffin Rule” to restrict coach movement during the season.

Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the chair and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee that oversees college sports, briefed The Associated Press on details of the bill they crafted in hopes it can get the 60 votes needed to clear the Senate.

“This is a stability bill, not just an NIL bill,” Cruz said, referencing the name, image and likeness payments that have led to football rosters with $30 million payrolls and reshaped the industry.

Cantwell said she and Cruz teamed up on the legislation “because he and I really do believe the college sports system is in a bit of chaos.”

The bill looks very much like the “best of” from a pair of legislative proposals — one called SCORE, another called SAFE — that have gone nowhere over the past several months. It contains two elements the NCAA has supported: a limited antitrust exemption and a clause that would preempt much of the patchwork of state laws currently regulating NIL.

Meredith Page, the chair of the NCAA Division I Student Athlete Advocacy Committee and a former volleyball player at Radford, called the bill “a phenomenal step,” especially after the latest setback for the SCORE Act, which the SAAC also supported.

“I think this has lots of great protections and gives the ability for us to stablize the field that is so, so unstable right now,” Page said.

NCAA President Charlie Baker said the association was reviewing the bill and looked forward to “further productive dialogue with members of Congress.”

College sports has been looking to Washington for help as it grapples with rising costs of paying players and an out-of-control transfer portal that have threatened smaller sports, many involving women, that make up the backbone of the U.S. Olympic pipeline.

This bill, called the Protect College Sports Act, would offer what Cruz and Cantwell said was targeted antitrust protection for the likes of the NCAA and the College Sports Commission, which was part of the largely Republican-backed SCORE Act that many Democrats opposed. That would be in exchange for what Cruz said would be “public-facing protections” for athletes in several areas, including guarantees for health insurance and scholarships, more stringent regulations for NIL deals from third parties and agents who broker their deals.

This article is republished through the USVI News affiliate desk. Reporting, analysis, and viewpoints are those of the original publisher and do not necessarily reflect USVI News.