Senate leaders eye college athlete pay rules

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Senate leaders say they plan to address payment rules for college athletes when lawmakers return from recess, with bipartisan concern growing that rising costs to compete for top football and basketball players are threatening other sports programs.

Leaders in college athletics are looking to Congress to create a uniform system of rules for paying athletes across the collegiate landscape.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) acknowledged the process will take time.

“That’s why it’s going to take a while. It’s going to take a while. I mean if that’s the way they want to do it, I’m fine with it,” he said.

Lawmakers in both parties worry ballooning costs to compete for the best athletes in football and basketball risk abandoning all other sports.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said football revenue has historically subsidized other programs — but that dynamic has changed.

“It’s the revenue from football, and maybe basketball, but mostly football that funds everything else. And so, olympic sports, women’s sports, the sports other than football, they’re funded by this surplus generated by football. That’s flipped,” he said.

The Protect College Sports Act would provide antitrust protections to allow the NCAA and conferences to enact stricter rules, require more reporting of athlete payment, and limit the workarounds large colleges use to pay athletes.

Coons said the bill would expand on benefits already established through the NIL settlement.

“It actually delivers the benefits to college athletes that they’ve earned and that the NIL settlement gives them, and more, in terms of scholarships, healthcare, lifetime healthcare trusts,” Coons said.

The bill stops short of categorizing athletes as university employees, but does not rule it out.

The legislation also seeks to limit movement in the transfer portal, which allows college football players to move to the highest bidder each year.

“It closes the transfer portal. Meaning you get one transfer, and the second one you lose a year of eligibility,” Coons said.

The House of Representatives is set to return from its recess on Aug. 31. The Senate is set to return Sept. 14.