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The North End Zone Jumbotron is getting a major upgrade in 2026. | John Schneider - SB Nation
Not everyone thinks that the current pay-for-play semi-professional situation in revenue generating college sports is a bad thing. The reality is, though that enough people are now alarmed about it that Congress looks like it’s going to step in.
The “Elephant in the Parlor”
That title is a cliche, but nothing over the last 15 years has done more to disrupt an entire endeavor than the flurry of court cases, settlements, and pending lawsuits than the Supreme Court decision that the NCAA is a monopoly. That single decision cracked open a major fissure in the dam protecting the concept of collegiate athletics and encouraged an increasing number of civil cases that produced the Transfer Portal, NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) collectives, massive conference level media contracts, and virtually no regulation at any level.
We plowed most of the known ground back in “The End” Series of articles. Many of the issues brought up in those pieces will be seen again in this short series. It was going to take Congress and the legal process to address (we’ll avoid the word “fix” for a while) the various issues in the current rapidly morphing situation in which collegiate athletics finds itself.
The elephant of the title is not necessarily “money” though the huge amount of unevenly distributed cash is leading to most of the issues, but the elephant is actually “professionalization”. College Sports aren’t just football and men’s basketball. Most of the “non-revenue” sports cost someone substantial sums of money but return little to the coffers for “re-investment”. Women’s basketball is beginning to gain a bit of momentum, but it still lags far behind the “king – football, and the crown prince – men’s basketball. So much so that those two sports generally fund all of the others in most collegiate athletic programs.
The problem became evident since all athletic departments are separate non-profit (501c3 corporations) that massive amount of excess cash that some of the top tier programs generate must be spent on something. Salaries of administrative staff began to bloom. Coaches’ contracts became immense, and affected athletes began to become envious. The suits began with men’s basketball and cascaded across most of the normal fixed functions of collegiate athletics. The transitory results (because everything is still a moving target) have been a rapid diminution of the power of the National Collegiate Athletic Association to govern its membership.
“I’m just a Bill”
For those of us of a certain age, there is a fun Schoolhouse Rock version of the Congressional Legislative process. Of course, it’s not even that close to what really happens but we’ll put it here to let you enjoy a bit of Saturday morning cartoon history, before we dive into the particulars of the legislative push and pull going on with regard to the impulse to fix things.
Schoolhouse Rock – “I’m Just a Bill” (1976) – Scholastic Rock, Inc.
They don’t talk filibusters, motions to recommit, motions to table, motions to offer amendments, sub-committee markups, committee markups, along with rules and floor motions. Those wouldn’t be fun, clever, and wouldn’t work well in a song for 8- to 13-year-old kids, but that’s what’s going on right now, and it’s taken several years to get here.
On3 also covers some of the scope of the act as it works its way through the senate “bill torture mill”.
Senators introduce bipartisan college sports bill with transfer, coaching movement enforcement
Senator Cruz’s first attempt at this reform was operating in parallel with the House version of the reform that they titled the SCORE Act. The improved movement came from some bipartisan compromise, especially over Title IX issues, and a heavy push from several big names in college sports like former coaching great Nick Saban (who has been sounding the alarm for over a decade, now).
The current summary of the bill and its contents is posted on the senate.gov website. Cruz, Cantwell, Schmitt, Coons Strike Agreement to Save College Sports – U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation The actual current text of the bill is listed here: Section-by-Section_Protect-College-Sports-Act.pdf
It’s important to remember that each of the title sections and summaries are just that, summaries. The actual detailed policies will be available as they act is debated and amended before it is introduced for full Senate debate and a cloture vote.
The Senate Still Needs the House to make this something that can be presented to the President for signature. With Saban’s backing there is little doubt that a completed bill will be signed and the legislation enacted within the specified season in the act. H.R. 4312 – SCORE Act | House of Representatives Committee on Rules
That effort is sitting in some House floor rule set waiting on someone to make a motion. If the Senate Protect College Sport Act passes, then an amended version of the SCORE Act could be advanced. The House could also take up the Senate bill without pushing their own version and having to hash it out in conference, but we’ll have to wait on the actions from Capitol Hill before we can be sure whether or not it will pass this congressional session.
We will visit each of the titles in the section summaries over the next few articles and look at what each might mean. Some of them look like they are going to be heavy hits on the current wild west of professionalized college sports, and step on the toes of people who thought they were going to make big bucks on a non-profit business that is supposed to fund college scholarships along with promoting unity and school spirit.
Needless to say, not everyone, or every institution is particularly happy with the legislation or the regulations likely to come of it. That list, however, does not include principals within several of the conferences, the ACC being one.
So, Now Let’s Talk About Us
Out of the P4 conferences of the SEC, B1G, Big XII, and ACC, the split in support for Congress taking action is noticeable because of the rapid evolution of the former two conferences into a Superpower 2 League, and the latter two struggling for traction and stability. Just before the congressional recess, representatives of the SEC and B1G made their opinions known about the “Protect College Sports Act”.
It might be a good idea to hit CTRL before clicking on the links and reading the articles to get the two perspectives on the issue in a separate window. Especially the recent article covering ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips’s statement regarding the “Protect College Sports Act” otherwise known as Cruz-Cantwell.
Recently the SEC’s and B1G’s objections to the bill were noted in hearings and interviews. SEC and Big Ten withhold support for new college sports bill | AP News Their position is understandable. They have been the driving force behind the current situation, and various provisions of the bill are aimed directly at them including the “Lane Kiffin Rule”, NIL guardrails, and monetary caps on spending.
We’ll talk about those issues as we cover the breakdown of the bill details as they become known. Remember, that the ACC is pretty far behind the UP2 (Ultra Power 2) conferences in revenue from both media contracts and stadium gate. There is a genuine fear that eventually the UP2 programs will pull away from the remainder of the P4 and G6 conferences and establish a permanent hold on upper tier athletes, meaningful championships, and lucrative bowl appearances.
The ACC is looking at the legislation as beneficial to its chances to remain competitive in an increasingly professionalized sport situation. It has also been a leader in non-revenue collegiate sports competition and is looking to preserve that status. The current situation is looking increasingly ominous for non-revenue sports opportunities for student-athletes.
Virginia Tech’s presence in the ACC is looking more solidified every month that goes by. If the new football coaching staff can pull off a decent season, and the basketball programs can continue to improve, Tech’s presence in the upper tier of the ACC for revenue sports will only be enhanced with what Jim Phillips is talking about. It might not, but we’ll have to discuss the Hokie angle in each article as we work through the details of the bill.
Next, We Start Digging
The next article, we will see if we can crack open some of the most current details being considered in the bill. The Senate amendment process might still make substantive changes, the bill is still a moving target, but the outline is there, and it’s suggesting massive changes of which we all should be aware; whether we are for this or against it.
GO HOKIES!!!
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