Protect College Sports Act: How the Senate bill could impact conference realignment and media rights deals The Big Ten and SEC oppose restrictions on their ability to expand in the future

Congress returned this week following its July 4 recess, thrusting the controversial, colossal Protect College Sports Act back into the news. The 111-page bill is likely to continue generating headlines as the Senate Commerce Committee pushes for a floor vote in early August.

Typically, we avoid plunging into the political weeds. But the PCSA warrants an exception because its weeds are directly linked to future media rights deals, conference realignment and a football super league — three issues of high interest for fans across the sport.

Put another way: If the legislation becomes law, it likely will have an incalculable impact on the structure of college football for years to come.

The PCSA could freeze conference expansion or open the door to realignment mayhem.

Are there enough votes to pass the Senate? Would it survive the House of Representatives? What role might the midterm elections play in the bill’s survival? Will the most controversial provisions remain?

The Commerce Committee sponsors, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri), are furiously attempting to muster the needed support before Congress scatters in early August.

For that reason, fans are likely to see and hear plenty about the PCSA through the rest of this month.

What do you need to know?

What can be ignored?

Many aspects have broad support within the college athletics industry, including provisions that regulate agents, allow one free transfer, establish uniform NIL guidelines, create manageable eligibility standards and offer the NCAA some legal protection.

Everyone agrees on this point: If the PCSA fails, there is no Plan B to end the chaos and the lawsuits — at least not on Capitol Hill.

“At the core, there’s a lot in there to like,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said during his conference’s football media extravaganza earlier this month. “It’s not perfect, don’t get me wrong. But there’s a lot to like.

“And I know, having spoken to (the) Senators, again, it was a major negotiation, and you got to have give and take in those situations.”

The Big 12 and ACC are generally supportive of the bill. But the Big Ten and SEC, the most powerful conferences in the land, have thus far declined to lend their approval.

They stand opposed to two provisions that form connective tissue to the topics that matter most to fans: conference media rights and realignment:

— The bill creates a pathway for conferences to pool their media rights in a manner comparable to the NFL model, in which the NFC East, for example, sells its media rights with the AFC South.

A single-seller model would, in theory, generate greater demand for college football inventory. But by grouping the conferences together, the pooling process would reduce the massive financial and competitive advantages currently held by the SEC and Big Ten.

They want alterations that explicitly state the pooling of media rights would be optional. The language in the original bill referenced optionality but left a tad too much doubt.

— No aspect of the PCSA has sparked more discussion and debate than the provision related to realignment.

The original version prohibited any conference generating at least $1 billion in annual revenue from expanding. Given that only the SEC and Big Ten clear that threshold, it was obvious the behemoths had been targeted.

At the local level, it seemed, Cantwell had sided with Washington State, Gonzaga and the Pac-12 over Washington and the Big Ten, while Cruz had favored Texas Tech, Baylor, Houston and the Big 12 over Texas, Texas A&M and the SEC.

Naturally, the targeted conferences protested. But the next iteration was, in some regards, much worse: It effectively froze conference membership throughout the FBS.

That wasn’t well received at the Group of Six level, which is stocked with schools determined to eventually move into the power conferences. Every member of the rebuilt Pac-12, for example, hopes to earn an invitation to the next version of the Big 12 or ACC.

“It makes no sense to me to make, at this point in time, a decision that no one can ascend or descend,” Colorado State athletic director John Weber told the Denver Post following the revision. “That’s irresponsible.”

All of which brings us to the Commerce Committee’s post-recess maneuvering.

A barrage of meetings with stakeholders across college sports, including several Big Ten university presidents, sparked another round of planned changes.

According to Yahoo, the latest version of the PCSA — it has not yet been made public — will feature an adjustment to the so-called “anti-expansion provision” that permits schools in the Group of Six to ascend to the Power Four level.

That’s a positive step for many, but it won’t satisfy the Big Ten and SEC, which are opposed to Congress dictating the terms of realignment.

Cruz, Cantwell and Schmitt are considering revisions that address realignment within the Power Four leagues, as well, Yahoo reported. But what parameters will be placed on the Big Ten and SEC specifically?

And even if the bill passes the Senate prior to the chamber’s August recess, the House stands as a daunting challenge.

Speaker Mike Johnson and majority leader Steve Scalise are from Louisiana, where the dominant football school, LSU, is a member of the SEC.

For that reason, many legal experts expect massive revisions that could make the final version unrecognizable from the original.

Also possible, if not likely: The bill never becomes law.

“This is our last hope relative to getting some help from Congress,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said Wednesday at the conference’s football kickoff event. “We are truthfully working as hard as we can to make this thing work. I don’t know how much more disrupted college sports could be.

“But we would enter that ecosystem if we can’t get something done.”

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