Discussion · Senate
Eric Schmitt Republican
“I want the Senate to pass this bill. College sports needs one set of national rules instead of fifty different state laws. The bill lets student athletes make money while protecting them from dishonest agents. It also sets fair limits on transfers and lets colleges work together on TV deals to fund other sports.”
“Madam President, I rise today to speak about the future of college sports and the legislation before us to protect it. The Protect College Sports Act is built around a simple idea: athletes should be able to benefit from their talent, they should be protected from people who want to take advantage of them, and every school and every athlete should play by the same set of rules. NIL revenue sharing and the transfer portal are here to stay. We are not turning back the clock; and whether you loved or hated the old system, we shouldn’t try. The problem is that college sports entered this new era without a stable framework to govern it. One court issues an order, one State passes a law, one conference adopts a rule, another court blocks it. Before athletes, coaches, and schools can adjust, the rules change all over again. This is the contradiction facing college athletics today. The product is booming, but the model is breaking. Stadiums are packed, television audiences are strong, and billions of dollars are moving through the system; but behind the scenes, athletes and schools are trying to operate under a patchwork of State laws, court rulings, and conflicting standards. The Protect College Sports Act replaces that uncertainty with one national framework. An athlete in Missouri should have the same basic rights and protections as an athlete in California, Florida, or anywhere else in this country. A school should not gain an advantage simply because its State legislature passed a different NIL law. And a national competition should not be governed by 50 different rule books--that does not work in practice. This bill establishes clear national rules for NIL transfers, eligibility, recruiting, and revenue sharing. It gives the governing body targeted authority to enforce those rules because rules only matter if someone can actually enforce them. Just as important, athletes can keep making money. Let’s be clear: this bill does not end NIL. It protects an athlete’s right to earn money from his or her name, image, and likeness in Federal law for the first time. Athletes can still sign legitimate endorsement deals, work with local businesses and national brands, or hire an agent or an attorney. And schools can continue sharing substantial revenue directly with their student-athletes. What the bill does is put protections around that marketplace--a marketplace that already exists. Recently Kedrick Green, a football player at Howard, shared his story about having the right guardrails around earning NIL compensation and how stability helps an athlete compete and grow. Our bill fixes that by requiring agents to register, caps endorsement commissions, requires written contracts, and gives athletes redress for grievances against bad actors. There are instances right now where some of these shady agents will charge 30 or 40 percent of a deal--maybe even earnings for the lifetime of the student-athlete, even if they never go pro. That is not taking power away from athletes. That is giving them protections they simply do not have right now. The bill also restores basic structure to transfers and eligibility. Every athlete is guaranteed one transfer without losing eligibility. And the bill also recognizes that life happens. If a head coach leaves or if a sport is eliminated, that athlete can transfer again without sitting out. But unlimited free agency every semester is not sustainable. An athlete can suit up for your favorite team in the fall and be playing for a rival in the spring. And don’t get me wrong, players deserve the freedom. If you are a backup somewhere, you should have a chance to go somewhere else. But they deserve stability also to build relationships, earn a degree, develop as athletes, and become part of a team. Lance Holtzclaw, a football player at Utah said it best. He said: Our bill strikes that balance. It also establishes a clear 5-year eligibility clock with reasonable exceptions. College sports should be played by college athletes. Madam President, 27-year olds who go pro and come back to compete against 17- year-olds is a joke, and that is completely acceptable right now under the current nonframework that we have. This should not be controversial. The bill also draws a clear line between legitimate NIL and buying a roster under the table. Real endorsement deals remain protected, but schools, boosters, and associated entities cannot disguise recruiting payments as marketing deals or use side arrangements to blow through the revenue-sharing cap. That is one of the chief criticisms right now under the House settlement that this bill actually builds upon from $21.5 million to almost $50 million a year per school every year, is at that $21.5 million number. That is not real. There are football rosters out there that are worth $40 million or $50 million, so let’s get this thing under one legitimate framework. The bill creates a retention fund so schools can reward athletes who have already invested a full season in their program. It cannot be used to buy high school recruits. It cannot be used to lure first-time transfers. It rewards the athlete who played, stayed, developed, and became a leader in that locker room. Take Jaden Rashada promised $14 million by Florida. The deal eventually was canceled, the money was never delivered, and the Gator Collective behind it disappeared. The student-athlete was made a promise, then was left high and dry. That athlete’s experience is the human cost of a system without any guardrails. Real empowerment means more than telling a teenager he is free to sign a contract. It means the contract is in writing, the agent is registered, the athlete knows what the agent can charge, and there is somewhere to turn when someone lies. Tradition is interwoven into the DNA of college sports. It is a uniquely American thing. This thing that we get to enjoy right now on a Saturday afternoon when the Florida Gators come to Missouri this Saturday--and I will be there--is unlike anything that exists anywhere. In Columbia, Mizzou football games, you can hear ``Mr. Brightside’’ playing, bringing all 70,000 Tiger fans to their feet and singing the infamous chorus in a nod to those over in Kansas. In Iowa City after the first quarter at Kinnick Stadium, Hawkeye fans turn and wave to the children who are battling illness on the 12th floor at the Iowa Children’s Hospital as a powerful symbol of community. Pittsburg State in Kansas has the gorilla walk through thousands of fans that are lining the path of the stadium to cheer on the football team, which is a big Division II power--at least was--entering to the song ``Welcome to the Jungle.’’ College sports are not only special because 100,000 people fill these SEC stadiums. They are special because hundreds of campuses have traditions that could not be replicated anywhere else. That is what makes college sports different. People do not fill stadiums simply to watch uniforms. Those uniforms represent a school, a State, a family tradition, and a community. And the opportunities created by college sports extend far beyond the stars that we see on Saturday afternoon or during March Madness or during the college baseball World Series. They reach swimmers, wrestlers, gymnasts, track athletes, softball, and volleyball players, first-generation students, and future Olympians. If the current arms race continues without limits and without new revenue, those opportunities will be the first to go. Clemson track and field athlete Ella Brooks said it best: It has afforded her opportunities she never would have imagined--including the ability to come to DC and help advocate for this bill that directly affects her and her younger brother and sister, who dreamed of playing at the collegiate level. College sports needs to be able to sustain itself or else future athletes like her younger siblings will not be afforded the same opportunities that she has received. That is what this bill does. That is the purpose of all of this, is to establish rules. It also gives schools an opportunity to generate more revenue. This is a provision that actually isn’t talked about a lot, but if we are interested in growing the pie to save women’s sports and Olympic sports, there ought to be an opportunity to maximize the value when the conferences go to rights holders and negotiate TV deals. Today, college media rights are fragmented. Conferences negotiate separately at different times and under different agreements. Meanwhile, schools are being asked to do more to preserve the Olympic and nonrevenue sports that create opportunities for thousands of young men and women--500,000 student-athletes in this country. Our first answer cannot always be higher ticket prices, another donor check, or cutting another sport. The Sports Broadcasting Act in title II of this gives schools another option. It allows conferences and schools to voluntarily--only if they choose to do so--to voluntarily pool their media rights and negotiate a larger package. Nobody is forced to participate in this. We will see. If we get this thing done, we will see how this plays out, but at least the option exists. Congress does not decide what the games are worth, the NCAA does not take control of anyone’s media rights, and existing contracts are protected in this bill. We are simply giving schools another tool to capture the full value of the product millions of Americans already love. Instead of always finding new ways to spend more, let’s give schools a way to grow the pie. Before I close, I want to address a few claims about the bill. Some say it gives the NCAA a blank check. It does not. Congress sets the guardrails and provides targeted legal protection only in the areas where national rules are necessary. The NCAA does not receive unlimited immunity. Some say the bill takes NIL rights away from athletes. The opposite is true. It protects the right to earn NIL compensation in Federal law, while stopping pay-for-play disguised as NIL and recruiting inducements dressed up as marketing. Some say the transfer provisions trap athletes at a school. They do not. Every athlete receives the ability to transfer without losing eligibility, plus additional protections for coaching change, graduate study, a discontinued sport, or athlete safety. That is a reasonable balance between player freedom and the stability every team sport needs. Those who want the broken system to continue claim this hinders college sports growth. The bill preserves title IX and protects scholarship and roster opportunities in nonrevenue sports. Doing nothing is not protecting these student-athletes. I would also point out that for the first time in Federal law, healthcare is guaranteed to athletes not only when they are in school, but when they are out of school. Players who are injured cannot lose their scholarship because of an injury. These are things that if you would have talked about back when I was playing or even 10 years ago, would have been sort of unthinkable, and we are protecting them. And some say Congress should simply stay out of college sports. Well, I understand that instinct. You would not have seen me giving this speech on the Senate floor 3 years ago when I got here. I would have been very, very skeptical of that. But the way this has played out, with, like I said, 27-year-olds competing with 17-year-olds, unlimited transfers, the agents--who are, by the way, the most vocal opponents of this bill, the ones wearing Gucci suits and alligator shoes. Not all of them, but some of them take advantage of these student-athletes. They don’t like it because right now, they get 30 to 40 percent on a contract. By the way, they just tell the kid: Transfer every year. They may end up in a worse situation. They most certainly probably don’t end up with a college degree. But, hey, you churned it; you got your cut. But the way it has played out, the only entity literally on planet Earth that can grant the limited antitrust protection status for the NCAA to enforce rules is Congress. It is time for this place to meet a moment. One of the biggest criticisms that we have here is that we don’t really do anything that addresses the concerns that people have. And if you don’t think people talk about this back home, I don’t know who you are talking to because the people I talk to, they care. They might have some different data point that they see, but they know this thing is screwed up, and they would like to know that Republicans and Democrats could actually agree on something here to fix a problem that is so obvious. Or do we play the safe political games. Look, we can do the ``Thunderdome’’ thing. We do it all the time on other stuff. But this is a chance, with a huge bipartisan margin in the U.S. Senate, to send a bill out of this Chamber, over to the House-- that the President supports--that can become law. That would be a significant accomplishment for a uniquely American institution, as I said--college sports. Congress should not call plays--as much as some of my colleagues might like to call an offensive coordinator from time to time--or run an athletic department, but only Congress can establish that national framework that applies across State lines and survives the constant cycle of litigation. You will hear complaints about this legislation, how it doesn’t do this or that. Well, welcome to Congress. It is not a perfect bill. I have filed perfect bills. I have a lot of perfect bills that I have filed. Rarely do you vote on a perfect bill because what you are trying to do is discover the art of the possible, which is what we are doing here and what is before this Chamber now. They say that if you have opposition from both sides, you probably have a good bill. I don’t know. We have really worked hard to address the concerns of many--almost everyone--for the issues they have identified here. That is part of legislating. And what we have here is a bill to protect and save a cherished American institution. If Congress does nothing, if we abdicate our responsibility on this issue, as we have on so many, the college athletes will not be the ones who come out on top. It will be the lawyers, the agents, consultants, the middlemen profiting from disorder. And all of us fans will pay the price too. The status quo no longer works. The Protect College Sports Act creates one national standard. It protects an athlete’s right to earn. It protects athletes from exploitation. It restores clear rules. And through the Sports Broadcasting Act, it gives schools the chance to generate the revenue necessary to preserve scholarships and other opportunities. We can compensate athletes without abandoning what makes college sports unique. We can give players freedom without accepting chaos. And we can preserve college sports for the next generation. Congress should act. Here is our moment. The clock is ticking. Game on. I yield the floor.”
Madam President, I rise today to speak about the future of college sports and the legislation before us to protect it. The Protect College Sports Act is built around a simple idea: athletes should be able to benefit from their talent, they should be protected from people who want to take advantage of them, and every school and every athlete should play by the same set of rules. NIL revenue sharing and the transfer portal are here to stay. We are not turning back the clock; and whether you loved or hated the old system, we shouldn’t try. The problem is that college sports entered this new era without a stable framework to govern it. One court issues an order, one State passes a law, one conference adopts a rule, another court blocks it. Before athletes, coaches, and schools can adjust, the rules change all over again. This is the contradiction facing college athletics today. The product is booming, but the model is breaking. Stadiums are packed, television audiences are strong, and billions of dollars are moving through the system; but behind the scenes, athletes and schools are trying to operate under a patchwork of State laws, court rulings, and conflicting standards. The Protect College Sports Act replaces that uncertainty with one national framework. An athlete in Missouri should have the same basic rights and protections as an athlete in California, Florida, or anywhere else in this country. A school should not gain an advantage simply because its State legislature passed a different NIL law. And a national competition should not be governed by 50 different rule books--that does not work in practice. This bill establishes clear national rules for NIL transfers, eligibility, recruiting, and revenue sharing. It gives the governing body targeted authority to enforce those rules because rules only matter if someone can actually enforce them. Just as important, athletes can keep making money. Let’s be clear: this bill does not end NIL. It protects an athlete’s right to earn money from his or her name, image, and likeness in Federal law for the first time. Athletes can still sign legitimate endorsement deals, work with local businesses and national brands, or hire an agent or an attorney. And schools can continue sharing substantial revenue directly with their student-athletes. What the bill does is put protections around that marketplace--a marketplace that already exists. Recently Kedrick Green, a football player at Howard, shared his story about having the right guardrails around earning NIL compensation and how stability helps an athlete compete and grow. Our bill fixes that by requiring agents to register, caps endorsement commissions, requires written contracts, and gives athletes redress for grievances against bad actors. There are instances right now where some of these shady agents will charge 30 or 40 percent of a deal--maybe even earnings for the lifetime of the student-athlete, even if they never go pro. That is not taking power away from athletes. That is giving them protections they simply do not have right now. The bill also restores basic structure to transfers and eligibility. Every athlete is guaranteed one transfer without losing eligibility. And the bill also recognizes that life happens. If a head coach leaves or if a sport is eliminated, that athlete can transfer again without sitting out. But unlimited free agency every semester is not sustainable. An athlete can suit up for your favorite team in the fall and be playing for a rival in the spring. And don’t get me wrong, players deserve the freedom. If you are a backup somewhere, you should have a chance to go somewhere else. But they deserve stability also to build relationships, earn a degree, develop as athletes, and become part of a team. Lance Holtzclaw, a football player at Utah said it best. He said: Our bill strikes that balance. It also establishes a clear 5-year eligibility clock with reasonable exceptions. College sports should be played by college athletes. Madam President, 27-year olds who go pro and come back to compete against 17- year-olds is a joke, and that is completely acceptable right now under the current nonframework that we have. This should not be controversial. The bill also draws a clear line between legitimate NIL and buying a roster under the table. Real endorsement deals remain protected, but schools, boosters, and associated entities cannot disguise recruiting payments as marketing deals or use side arrangements to blow through the revenue-sharing cap. That is one of the chief criticisms right now under the House settlement that this bill actually builds upon from $21.5 million to almost $50 million a year per school every year, is at that $21.5 million number. That is not real. There are football rosters out there that are worth $40 million or $50 million, so let’s get this thing under one legitimate framework. The bill creates a retention fund so schools can reward athletes who have already invested a full season in their program. It cannot be used to buy high school recruits. It cannot be used to lure first-time transfers. It rewards the athlete who played, stayed, developed, and became a leader in that locker room. Take Jaden Rashada promised $14 million by Florida. The deal eventually was canceled, the money was never delivered, and the Gator Collective behind it disappeared. The student-athlete was made a promise, then was left high and dry. That athlete’s experience is the human cost of a system without any guardrails. Real empowerment means more than telling a teenager he is free to sign a contract. It means the contract is in writing, the agent is registered, the athlete knows what the agent can charge, and there is somewhere to turn when someone lies. Tradition is interwoven into the DNA of college sports. It is a uniquely American thing. This thing that we get to enjoy right now on a Saturday afternoon when the Florida Gators come to Missouri this Saturday--and I will be there--is unlike anything that exists anywhere. In Columbia, Mizzou football games, you can hear ``Mr. Brightside’’ playing, bringing all 70,000 Tiger fans to their feet and singing the infamous chorus in a nod to those over in Kansas. In Iowa City after the first quarter at Kinnick Stadium, Hawkeye fans turn and wave to the children who are battling illness on the 12th floor at the Iowa Children’s Hospital as a powerful symbol of community. Pittsburg State in Kansas has the gorilla walk through thousands of fans that are lining the path of the stadium to cheer on the football team, which is a big Division II power--at least was--entering to the song ``Welcome to the Jungle.’’ College sports are not only special because 100,000 people fill these SEC stadiums. They are special because hundreds of campuses have traditions that could not be replicated anywhere else. That is what makes college sports different. People do not fill stadiums simply to watch uniforms. Those uniforms represent a school, a State, a family tradition, and a community. And the opportunities created by college sports extend far beyond the stars that we see on Saturday afternoon or during March Madness or during the college baseball World Series. They reach swimmers, wrestlers, gymnasts, track athletes, softball, and volleyball players, first-generation students, and future Olympians. If the current arms race continues without limits and without new revenue, those opportunities will be the first to go. Clemson track and field athlete Ella Brooks said it best: It has afforded her opportunities she never would have imagined--including the ability to come to DC and help advocate for this bill that directly affects her and her younger brother and sister, who dreamed of playing at the collegiate level. College sports needs to be able to sustain itself or else future athletes like her younger siblings will not be afforded the same opportunities that she has received. That is what this bill does. That is the purpose of all of this, is to establish rules. It also gives schools an opportunity to generate more revenue. This is a provision that actually isn’t talked about a lot, but if we are interested in growing the pie to save women’s sports and Olympic sports, there ought to be an opportunity to maximize the value when the conferences go to rights holders and negotiate TV deals. Today, college media rights are fragmented. Conferences negotiate separately at different times and under different agreements. Meanwhile, schools are being asked to do more to preserve the Olympic and nonrevenue sports that create opportunities for thousands of young men and women--500,000 student-athletes in this country. Our first answer cannot always be higher ticket prices, another donor check, or cutting another sport. The Sports Broadcasting Act in title II of this gives schools another option. It allows conferences and schools to voluntarily--only if they choose to do so--to voluntarily pool their media rights and negotiate a larger package. Nobody is forced to participate in this. We will see. If we get this thing done, we will see how this plays out, but at least the option exists. Congress does not decide what the games are worth, the NCAA does not take control of anyone’s media rights, and existing contracts are protected in this bill. We are simply giving schools another tool to capture the full value of the product millions of Americans already love. Instead of always finding new ways to spend more, let’s give schools a way to grow the pie. Before I close, I want to address a few claims about the bill. Some say it gives the NCAA a blank check. It does not. Congress sets the guardrails and provides targeted legal protection only in the areas where national rules are necessary. The NCAA does not receive unlimited immunity. Some say the bill takes NIL rights away from athletes. The opposite is true. It protects the right to earn NIL compensation in Federal law, while stopping pay-for-play disguised as NIL and recruiting inducements dressed up as marketing. Some say the transfer provisions trap athletes at a school. They do not. Every athlete receives the ability to transfer without losing eligibility, plus additional protections for coaching change, graduate study, a discontinued sport, or athlete safety. That is a reasonable balance between player freedom and the stability every team sport needs. Those who want the broken system to continue claim this hinders college sports growth. The bill preserves title IX and protects scholarship and roster opportunities in nonrevenue sports. Doing nothing is not protecting these student-athletes. I would also point out that for the first time in Federal law, healthcare is guaranteed to athletes not only when they are in school, but when they are out of school. Players who are injured cannot lose their scholarship because of an injury. These are things that if you would have talked about back when I was playing or even 10 years ago, would have been sort of unthinkable, and we are protecting them. And some say Congress should simply stay out of college sports. Well, I understand that instinct. You would not have seen me giving this speech on the Senate floor 3 years ago when I got here. I would have been very, very skeptical of that. But the way this has played out, with, like I said, 27-year-olds competing with 17-year-olds, unlimited transfers, the agents--who are, by the way, the most vocal opponents of this bill, the ones wearing Gucci suits and alligator shoes. Not all of them, but some of them take advantage of these student-athletes. They don’t like it because right now, they get 30 to 40 percent on a contract. By the way, they just tell the kid: Transfer every year. They may end up in a worse situation. They most certainly probably don’t end up with a college degree. But, hey, you churned it; you got your cut. But the way it has played out, the only entity literally on planet Earth that can grant the limited antitrust protection status for the NCAA to enforce rules is Congress. It is time for this place to meet a moment. One of the biggest criticisms that we have here is that we don’t really do anything that addresses the concerns that people have. And if you don’t think people talk about this back home, I don’t know who you are talking to because the people I talk to, they care. They might have some different data point that they see, but they know this thing is screwed up, and they would like to know that Republicans and Democrats could actually agree on something here to fix a problem that is so obvious. Or do we play the safe political games. Look, we can do the ``Thunderdome’’ thing. We do it all the time on other stuff. But this is a chance, with a huge bipartisan margin in the U.S. Senate, to send a bill out of this Chamber, over to the House-- that the President supports--that can become law. That would be a significant accomplishment for a uniquely American institution, as I said--college sports. Congress should not call plays--as much as some of my colleagues might like to call an offensive coordinator from time to time--or run an athletic department, but only Congress can establish that national framework that applies across State lines and survives the constant cycle of litigation. You will hear complaints about this legislation, how it doesn’t do this or that. Well, welcome to Congress. It is not a perfect bill. I have filed perfect bills. I have a lot of perfect bills that I have filed. Rarely do you vote on a perfect bill because what you are trying to do is discover the art of the possible, which is what we are doing here and what is before this Chamber now. They say that if you have opposition from both sides, you probably have a good bill. I don’t know. We have really worked hard to address the concerns of many--almost everyone--for the issues they have identified here. That is part of legislating. And what we have here is a bill to protect and save a cherished American institution. If Congress does nothing, if we abdicate our responsibility on this issue, as we have on so many, the college athletes will not be the ones who come out on top. It will be the lawyers, the agents, consultants, the middlemen profiting from disorder. And all of us fans will pay the price too. The status quo no longer works. The Protect College Sports Act creates one national standard. It protects an athlete’s right to earn. It protects athletes from exploitation. It restores clear rules. And through the Sports Broadcasting Act, it gives schools the chance to generate the revenue necessary to preserve scholarships and other opportunities. We can compensate athletes without abandoning what makes college sports unique. We can give players freedom without accepting chaos. And we can preserve college sports for the next generation. Congress should act. Here is our moment. The clock is ticking. Game on. I yield the floor.