Focus appears to be on football (portal, NIL, etc.) with Saban co-chairing.
Trump’s involvement follows a tense last few months of negotiations over college legislation among five U.S. senators: Republicans Ted Cruz (Texas) and Jerry Moran (Kansas), and Democrats Cory Booker (New Jersey), Chris Coons (Delaware) and Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut). In fact, several members of that group met as recently as Tuesday to work on legislation.
While college leaders believe the five are as “close as they’ve ever been” to agreeing to a college sports bill, that hope dims as a divided Congress faces domestic and international pressures that take precedence.
A framework of any bill was expected to include three main concepts: (1) a limited antitrust protection that, in part, codifies the House settlement to allow the NCAA and power conferences to enforce eligibility and transfer rules, as well as rules around the new revenue-sharing structure; (2) a clause deeming athletes as students and not employees, with a possible sunset on that provision after a set number of years; and (3) pre-emption of existing NIL state laws, many of which contradict the settlement and/or NCAA rules.
Trump’s involvement follows a tense last few months of negotiations over college legislation among five U.S. senators: Republicans Ted Cruz (Texas) and Jerry Moran (Kansas), and Democrats Cory Booker (New Jersey), Chris Coons (Delaware) and Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut). In fact, several members of that group met as recently as Tuesday to work on legislation.
While college leaders believe the five are as “close as they’ve ever been” to agreeing to a college sports bill, that hope dims as a divided Congress faces domestic and international pressures that take precedence.
A framework of any bill was expected to include three main concepts: (1) a limited antitrust protection that, in part, codifies the House settlement to allow the NCAA and power conferences to enforce eligibility and transfer rules, as well as rules around the new revenue-sharing structure; (2) a clause deeming athletes as students and not employees, with a possible sunset on that provision after a set number of years; and (3) pre-emption of existing NIL state laws, many of which contradict the settlement and/or NCAA rules.
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