Big Ten, SEC Support College Sports Bill After Late Trump Pressure Campaign

The Big Ten Conference and the Southeastern Conference, the country’s most powerful collegiate sports conferences, have backed a bipartisan college sports bill after a flurry of intense discussions.

The conferences shared their support for the Senate’s current version of the Protect College Sports Act in a joint statement Friday night, writing that they came to an agreement “following detailed and productive negotiations” with bill sponsors Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) and Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri).

Their endorsement is a major boost to the sweeping sports bill — and came after a series of 11th-hour meetings forced this week by lawmakers eager to kill the obstacle presented by large conferences, who had opposed the bill for months over several provisions like capping power-conference membership and salary cap enforceability.

Big Ten and SEC leadership had blown past other Congress-imposed deadlines this week, but they scrambled to hold meetings on revised bill text after President Donald Trump stated his intent to publicly condemn conference leadership for opposing the bill, Yahoo Sports reported Friday night.

Trump Plans to Impose Deep Cuts to Western States’ Water Usage
Sen. Bernie Moreno Doesn’t ‘Know’ if Embattled Rep. Max Miller Should Stay on Ballot
Democrats Mobilize Over Fears Trump Will Deploy Troops to Polls
Dana Milbank: I Was Prepared to Dislike Abdul El-Sayed. Then I Came to Michigan and Spoke to Him.

Dozens of other conferences, including the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big 12, had vocally supported the measure since it was introduced in June because it would help close the revenue gap between themselves and the country’s two biggest power conferences. However, their endorsement could waver after the bill’s latest version more than doubles what top programs can pay their players — meaning the Big Ten and SEC’s richest members can further outpace smaller conferences.

“The Big Ten Conference and Southeastern Conference support the Protect College Sports Act as currently drafted, following detailed and productive negotiations with Senators Cruz, Cantwell and Schmitt, and their respective staffs,” the short joint statement reads. “We appreciate the substantial work that has gone into this effort.”

Negotiations with the conferences ran seven to eight hours a day, Schmitt told USA Today. Consensus on how a college athlete’s brand deals would impact an institution’s revenue-sharing cap was what finally got the conferences to sign off on the bill, Schmitt said.

The proposal seemed unlikely to see any meaningful progress before the Senate begins its summer recess on Aug. 7, but Schmitt told Yahoo Sports on Friday that he expects a vote late next week.