It is not looking good for the Protect College Sports Act.

Reports surfaced Wednesday night that the SEC and Big Ten had not given congress their position on the bill, which many are hoping will stop the chaos that has become modern collegiate athletics.

With college athletics biggest two conferences holding legislation up, it is unlikely the bill will pass through U.S. Congress before both houses come to a month-long recess.

The PCSA is a bipartisan federal bill introduced in the U.S. Senate to create a uniform national legal framework for collegiate athletics, stabilize name, image, and likeness (NIL) rules, and address transfer portal and antitrust challenges following major court settlements.

Officials from both the SEC and Big Ten have been in negotiations with lawmakers on revisions to the bill that might get their support. Without the support of the SEC and Big Ten, many suspect the bill will not make it through congress.

And the longer the delay, the more likely the bill is held up.

According to Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger, “Conference leadership did not meet an original deadline set by lawmakers — 9 a.m. ET Wednesday — and instead the two sides spent most of Tuesday night and Wednesday embroiled in discussions over several provisions in the bill.”

What is causing the delay?

It is money of course. Dellenger writes, “the conferences’ desire to close a cap circumvention loophole to prohibit schools from exceeding the revenue-share cap by using ‘associated entities,’ such as corporate sponsors and multimedia rights partners, to redirect athletic department funds to their rosters. College administrators say an adjustment to the provision is essential to provide a stricter cap, as the latest version of the bill raises the athlete revenue-share cap from $21.3 million to $48.8 million, a move that, while aligning more with the current market, must be paired with a hard cap.”

Dellenger goes on to report “the bill creates a $22.5 million retention pool for schools to use on retaining athletes in addition to the $21.3 million original cap, plus $5 million to be spent only on women athletes.”

The SEC and Big Ten believe that “the associated entities provision was not strong enough to prevent continued cap circumvention.” There is also concern they do not have enough antitrust protection from the states.

The negotiations, according to Dellenger “have turned somewhat divisive.”

Senators are wanting to bring the bill to the floor for a vote before they go to recess on Aug. 7. However, to do that, many believe Majority Leader John Thune must file for cloture by Thursday.

With the issues of rolling NIL deals, including those from Learfield, the negotiations involving the cap do not seem to be going in the right direction.

“Not everyone agrees that including most or all of associated NIL deals into the cap is the right move. Some athlete deals through associated entities are kosher endorsement and commercial contracts and shouldn’t be counted against the cap, said Cole Gahagan, the president and CEO of Learfield, the multimedia rights partner of dozens of FBS universities. Learfield, as well as its competitor Playfy, hold schools’ intellectual property rights and sell those rights to sponsors. Those sponsors often strike deals with athletes — some through a redirection of funds; others through true deal-making with a program’s best players,” Dellenger wrote.

If the bill does not pass the through the Senate by Aug. 7, the bill will likely not survive, and college athletics could be in the same state it is currently in for at least two to three more years.

Both the Big Ten and SEC have shunned the idea of going to a self-governing league, though that is an option if they cannot come to an agreement with Congress.