CLEMSON — There was a big development in college athletics on Thursday, and the two biggest and most powerful conferences in America are not happy about it.

The Protect College Sports Act passed through the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on Thursday and is heading to the full Senate Floor for consideration. The legislation, the first comprehensive federal framework for college athletics, passed the through committee with a 19-9 vote, and it may soon be brought for a full vote on the Senate floor.

Like all bills, however, it will not be passed without a fight, and that fight comes from the SEC and Big Ten conferences. According to Senator Maria Cantwell in an article by Yahoo Sports, the two biggest conferences have tried to intimidate their members who supported the bill by threatening team schedule changes. She suggested league executives were treating university presidents and athletic directors as puppets, but school board members are springing into action and asking those schools to support the bill.

Sen. Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Committee Chairman Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a bipartisan group, introduced the Protect College Sports Act on June 2, along  with Senators Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.).

The landmark bill sets new rules and provides new tools to stabilize college sports, including codifying athletes’ rights to earn compensation for their NIL, enshrining scholarship, scholarship and healthcare protections in law, reining in predatory agents and preserving and protecting the future of women’s and Olympic sports.

“A lot of people in Washington—my Washington—and around the country think that bipartisanship is dead,” said Sen. Cantwell in a press release. “But on behalf of 500,000 athletes who are seeing their future opportunities dimmed, we decided to work together to try to address this problem. This bill stands tall on behalf of athletes. This is landmark in the protections that it gives student athletes.”

The updated bill passed on Thursday includes additional protections for women’s and Olympic athletes and America’s Olympic medal pipeline. The bill bars major colleges from cutting the number of women’s and Olympic sports programs, roster spots, and scholarship opportunities they support.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee endorsed the bill on Tuesday.

“College sports are in crisis,” said Sen. Coons. “We can’t sit back and watch as they – and the incredible opportunities and communities they create – collapse. This bipartisan bill will protect student athletes and the programs they’re a part of – no matter how big or small the school or sport. I’m glad my colleagues on the Commerce Committee on both sides of the aisle saw the urgency of this legislation. I urge the full Senate to pass it soon so we can get back to cheering on our favorite teams and the amazing athletes that make them possible.” 

Under the bill, all Division I schools have to maintain a minimum number of sports teams and roster spots. And any college athletic department with more than $80 million in revenue – 74 major universities, including Notre Dame plus the schools of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC – may not reduce the number of women’s and Olympic teams they field below 2024-25 levels for nine years.

The Protect College Sports Act will also grant the NCAA a limited antitrust provision, which will include a one-time transfer limitation and a five-year eligibility standard, while also potentially paving the way to pool FBS media rights and limit third-party NIL to athletes.

As of today, 24 collegiate athletic conferences, 267 colleges and universities across 49 states and Washington, D.C., including historically black colleges, have publicly supported the legislation.

But not everyone is happy with the bill, most notably the SEC and Big Ten. According to Yahoo Sports, the two Power Conferences say, the bill provides an avenue for outside influences to poach their schools for the creation of a super league.

In a last-minute provision before the committee voted, lawmakers changed an anti-expansion provision that specifically targeted the two conferences. It prohibited them from adding new schools, which also applies to the ACC and Big 12 conferences.

The SEC and Big Ten worry that the anti-expansion provision still remains too narrow and that it should also prohibit third parties (outside firms) from poaching members of a conference.

From here, the Protect College Sports Act will go before the Senate Floor. Should it pass, it will then need to be adopted by the House of Representatives. Once it has been passed by both the Senate and the House, the President of the United States will sign it into law or he can veto it.

If the President vetoes the bill, Congress can override the veto with a two-thirds majority vote. However, President Donald Trump released a statement earlier this month supporting the bill.