Big-time college sports have moved halfway toward the federal bailout they crave. The rest of the journey probably won’t happen anytime soon.
The US Senate passed the so-called “Protect College Sports Act” on Monday night, by a vote of 77-22. The bill now goes to the US House of Representatives.
Earlier in the day, SI.com’s Pat Forde cited an unnamed source who said there was a “0.0 percent chance” the House will pass the bill before the midterm elections.
With Democrats widely expected to seize control of the House in November, the question will be whether it will get any meaningful business done before the next Congress convenes in January.
So there is still a long way to go before the NCAA and its members get the antitrust exemption and other benefits designed to avert a disaster. Even college football is more popular and profitable than ever.
There is chaos, they say. In whose view? The players, after years of being exploited by a system that didn’t give them the opportunity to participate meaningfully in the value they generated, are sitting pretty. It’s not messy for them; it is the free market in operation.
But schools can’t seem to be trusted to balance their budgets, which is bullshit. Every American business faces a constant challenge to adapt or fail. Instead of expecting administrators to come up with a better way to carve up the pie and/or spend as much as they can, they want artificial restrictions on what players can do.
It shouldn’t be like that. And, despite the Senate vote, maybe not.