Senate won’t vote on college sports bill before August break

Washington isn’t moving as fast as college sports leaders hoped.

This isn’t particularly surprising to me. When the whole thing was first announced, I didn’t have much of an expectation it would ever pass.

This is one of those things that tends to just fade away quietly.

A congressional source told ESPN on Thursday that the Senate won’t take up a major new sports bill before Congress breaks for August.

The bill goes by the name Protect College Sports Act. It stretches past 100 pages.

Inside those pages sits a plan to give the NCAA legal protection so it can enforce spending caps, transfer rules and eligibility limits across every school in the country.

This isn’t a brand-new idea that just popped up.

The bill already cleared one big hurdle when the Senate Commerce Committee approved it back in June. At that point supporters believed the full Senate might vote on it before summer ended.

That timeline now looks shaky. Without a Senate vote in early August the bill only has a narrow stretch of time left before November’s elections pull nearly every lawmaker’s attention away from everyday legislation.

Sen. Ted Cruz is one of the people behind this bill.

The Texas Republican has described it as the “last, best hope” for a real college sports law. Schools, conferences and the NCAA have spent years asking Congress for exactly this kind of help.

A stall from Senate’s top leader

A reporter from Punchbowl News caught up with Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Thursday. The reporter wanted an update on what’s often called the “NIL bill” along with a separate piece of legislation.

Thune’s answer wasn’t encouraging.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to get them done,” he said.

ESPN later got confirmation from a source that Thune’s comment applied directly to the Protect College Sports Act and its chances of a vote in August.

That kind of comment from the Senate’s top leader is noteworthyt. Thune controls whether a bill even reaches the floor.

If he doesn’t see a path this summer then the bill’s supporters are stuck waiting.

Earlier that same Thursday SEC commissioner Greg Sankey talked with ESPN too. He explained his conference along with other leagues around the country are still waiting on something they need before they can fully weigh in.

“We have not seen language,” Sankey said. “We need to see language.”

Those short lines say a lot. Even the people running major conferences don’t yet know exactly what the final version of this bill will look like.

Arkansas competes in the SEC so any final version of this bill would reach the Razorbacks the same way it reaches every other program in that conference.

The Hogs and their SEC neighbors would all play under whatever rules Congress eventually settles on.

Time pressure builds for Hogs, everyone else

ESPN pressed Sankey on the calendar. August recess sits close on the horizon and midterm elections will soon take over most of the political conversation in Washington.

That combination leaves very little room for a bill this large to move.

Sankey didn’t brush the question aside. He said most people would probably agree the clock is tight for this bill right now.

That kind of caution matters here. A bill this size usually needs plenty of runway to pass.

Once lawmakers head home for August, then pivot toward campaigning for November the runway gets shorter fast.

For now the Protect College Sports Act sits in limbo. It isn’t dead.

Committee approval in June proved there’s real support behind it. But it also isn’t racing toward a finish line the way its authors once pictured.

Fans across the SEC will keep watching how this plays out.

Arkansas backers along with supporters of every other league member have plenty riding on rules covering spending caps, transfer limits and eligibility standards.

The next stretch of weeks will be big.

If the Senate can’t find time before August recess then this entire debate over the future of college sports rules could slide into next year instead of wrapping up this summer.

Nothing about this process happens quickly. Big federal bills rarely do.

But for programs like Arkansas and conferences like the SEC the outcome will shape how college sports operate for years to come.

Key takeaways

• A congressional source told ESPN the Protect College Sports Act won’t get a full Senate vote before August recess
• Sen. Ted Cruz called the bill the “last, best hope” for a college sports law while Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he doesn’t think it gets done before break
• SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said his conference still hasn’t seen the bill’s language, leaving a tight window before November’s elections take over Washington’s attention