Photo by Ian Hutchinson
Congress might finally be ready to act on college sports. A bipartisan Senate bill backed by the White House and major stakeholders across the college athletics landscape is expected to be announced as soon as Friday, representing the clearest path yet toward locking NCAA rules into federal law and giving the organization protection from antitrust challenges.
The bill is authored by Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Maria Cantwell. It’s the first time in years that Congress, the White House, and the people who actually run college sports have all been on the same page about needing federal intervention.
A memo obtained by CBS Sports shows a presidential committee on college sports is coordinating a unified letter of support for the legislation.
Where This Bill Stands
Cruz and Cantwell have been working together on this for at least two months. Sources told CBS Sports the bill is expected to replace the long-pending SCORE Act as the NCAA’s best real shot at getting something through Congress. Cantwell’s office declined to comment on the memo or the timing.
The bill’s language is expected to drop early next week, with committee hearings to follow in the weeks or months after that. August matters here; that’s when Congress heads into its summer recess, and there’s genuine urgency to move this forward before that window closes.
The SCORE Act is still scheduled for a House floor vote next week, but lawmakers don’t believe it can clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. That’s exactly why the White House is pushing this separate bipartisan alternative instead.
Who’s Behind the Push
The presidential committee driving this effort is chaired by New York Yankees president Randy Levine and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was tapped by President Donald Trump to lead a commission focused on college sports reform. Trump formed five committees on college sports back in March, pulling in 29 individuals from government, MLB, NBA, NFL, and college athletics. Those committees have met several times and last week circulated a draft with early ideas on how to reshape college athletics.
In the memo sent to committee members, the presidential panel is urging members to sign on to a letter backing the bill. It’s a coordinated show of support meant to signal that stakeholders across the board are aligned.
The exact contents of the Cantwell-Cruz bill are still unclear.
That said, the memo suggests it will borrow from the White House committee’s draft framework, including antitrust protections and clear prohibitions on using NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals to get around the $20.5 million compensation cap. That cap circumvention, primarily through booster collectives, was flagged by the White House framework as the biggest workaround in the current system.
How It Differs from the SCORE Act
Don’t expect this to look much like the SCORE Act. That bill was primarily a rules-codification vehicle tied to the House settlement; this legislation is shaping up to be something broader. Last week’s White House committee draft floated ideas like capping coaches’ salaries, creating a Group of Six playoff structure, and protecting the NCAA from antitrust litigation.
Even with all of this momentum, the road ahead isn’t short. Before anything reaches the Senate floor, the bill will need to go through committee-level discussions on Capitol Hill first. It’s the furthest along college sports legislation has gotten in years, but the process still has a ways to go.
