The Protect College Sports Act continues to dominate college football’s summer.
Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti addressed the legislation in his press conference at the Big Ten’s media day Tuesday, saying the conference needed to see several changes to the bill before supporting it.
The Big Ten and SEC have opposed the bill due to a handful of issues, including dissatisfaction with potential restrictions on player compensation, conference membership caps, and scheduling requirements.
Their biggest opposition has been to the part of the bill that would give schools the opportunity to pool and sell their media rights as one entity. The newest version of the bill, which was sent to the SEC and Big Ten Tuesday afternoon, addresses this by explicitly stating that schools or conferences can’t be forced to participate in media rights pooling.
TCU athletic director Mike Buddie told Front Office Sports in a recent interview that he supports the pooling of media rights, but understands the SEC and Big Ten’s concerns.
“I do think we as a collective group of 130 or so FBS football playing institutions can get a better deal and everybody could come out a little better than they currently are,” he said. “But I also know that Greg Sankey’s job isn’t to help the ACC, Big 12, the American, and the Sun Belt.”
Buddie said he is supportive of the legislation, adding he believes that eligibility and transfer portal restrictions would be beneficial for athletes and ensure they complete degrees. While some have placed blame on Congress for failing to act on the bill in a timely fashion, Buddie disagrees.
“This is our mess,” he said. “It’s my industry that’s screwed this whole thing up. Our elected officials are having to come in and clean it up because we couldn’t figure it out ourselves.”
Buddie, like many, does not ultimately see the bill passing anytime in the near future.
“I think it’s a long shot,” he said. “There’s a lot of important things going on from recess on the hill to election races to wars and conflicts. I think our elected officials are going to be distracted and a lot of them probably just don’t feel it’s important enough.”
The Big Ten and SEC have until 9 am Wednesday to deliver their final position on the amended bill. If they’re satisfied, a Senate vote could be scheduled as early as next week or be pushed to the fall.
