{"id":399,"date":"2026-06-10T22:34:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=399"},"modified":"2026-06-10T22:34:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:34:51","slug":"whats-the-alternative-us-sens-cruz-cantwell-urge-buy-in-on-college-sports-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=399","title":{"rendered":"\u2018What\u2019s the alternative?\u2019: US Sens. Cruz, Cantwell urge buy-in on college sports bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators promoted their legislation Wednesday to set national standards for college athletes\u2019 compensation, calling the compromise bill the best available option.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=397\">NC lawmakers push free college tuition to combat public safety worker shortage<\/a><\/p>\n<p>GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state \u2014 the top members of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the matter \u2014 convened a roundtable of coaches, leaders and college athletes over\u00a0their bill introduced this month to \u201crestore order in college athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The sweeping bill is meant to combat many of the biggest challenges in college sports, but faces a long road to becoming law amid opposition from key figures, including major sports conferences.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cruz noted the opposition, but urged support for the bipartisan compromise.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>NC House advances bill to hide star athlete pay from public records<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"E8aAByznQQ\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"282\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" scrolling=\"no\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/ncnewsline.com\/2026\/05\/06\/nc-house-advances-bill-to-hide-star-athlete-pay-from-public-records\/embed\/#?secret=6A5vOZKriJ#?secret=E8aAByznQQ\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cNC House advances bill to hide star athlete pay from public records\u201d \u2014 NC Newsline\" width=\"500\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy view is this is the only train leaving the station, which is, this bill, I believe, has a real prospect of passage \u2014 it is bipartisan,\u201d said Cruz, acknowledging that at least 60 senators are needed to advance a bill past the filibuster.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans hold just 53 seats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn my view, anyone who\u2019s a critic, anyone who is attacking this bill, has the burden of saying, \u2018What\u2019s the alternative?\u2019\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cantwell said that while she and Cruz disagree on several things, even on issues within the committee\u2019s jurisdiction, \u201cwe agree on this issue of setting some rules.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Washington state Democrat said she and Cruz were \u201ckind of disappointed that this universe of institutions and organizations couldn\u2019t get there, but we\u2019re an example of people who don\u2019t agree but can agree.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>New reality in college sports<\/h4>\n<p>The bill marks the latest congressional push to overhaul the college sports world, which continues to grapple with the fallout from the NCAA\u2019s 2021 guidelines that allowed student-athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, or NIL.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Colleges, businesses and marketers are also wrestling with a patchwork of state NIL laws, gender inequity in NIL deals and the NCAA\u2019s controversial transfer portal, among other issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Among several major changes,\u00a0 would create a national NIL standard that preempts the patchwork of state laws, provides certain antitrust protections to the NCAA and college sports conferences and establishes a five-year eligibility timeline for athletes.<\/p>\n<p>GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware co-sponsored the bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sherika Montgomery, commissioner of the Big South Conference, said \u201cthe things that are enclosed (in the bill) will provide a level of stability as well as sustainability, while also providing an opportunity and a pathway for success that I know our current 4,300 student-athletes really value.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=396\">Coastal lawmakers signal it may be time to modify North Carolina\u2019s decades-old ban on seawalls<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The conference includes nine member institutions across North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia and is affiliated with NCAA\u2019s Division I.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Montgomery pointed to a patchwork of state laws just in those three states that have prompted a \u201clevel of instability,\u201d noting that \u201cas our coaches recruit not only against themselves in our conference, but across other coaches in those respective states, there has been a widening of the gap with the current rules that we have.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Under the bill, athletes would also be guaranteed one transfer without losing eligibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Gannon Flynn, a swimmer at Boston University, said the bill \u201cdoes a good job of regulating the transfer industry,\u201d adding that \u201cas you see more and more athletes do one year, two years (at a school), transfer four, five, six times, it\u2019s impossible to get those degrees.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When asked by Cruz what would be the consequences of Congress doing nothing, Flynn said \u201cwe will continue to see rules that the NCAA still has, one by one, start to get knocked down by the courts every time someone does something against the rule, and then goes to the judge of their choice to rule in their favor, and then we have each state regulating to how it helps them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cIf we continue down this route, we\u2019re not going to have rules, there\u2019s going to be no integrity left in the game, and without clear, enforceable and fair rules, then there\u2019s no point in us even competing.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>Mounting opposition\u00a0<\/h4>\n<p>Though members of Wednesday\u2019s roundtable pointed to the \u201cstability\u201d the bill could bring to college athletics, the measure already faces pushback from powerful athletic organizations such as the\u00a0Big Ten and Southeastern conferences, which have said they do not support the bill as drafted and that the legislation \u201cleaves critical issues unresolved.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cruz and Cantwell later met with the\u00a0presidents and\u00a0chancellors of schools in both conferences.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0 also sent a\u00a0letter this month to Cruz and Cantwell urging the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to pause consideration of the bill and related college sports legislation \u201cuntil athletic leaders meaningfully engage with concerns about attacks on Black political representation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The major voting bloc rallied behind the NAACP\u2019s call to push back against GOP-led redistricting efforts in Southern states via college sports, including a boycott of public universities by athletes and supporters.<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0competing bill to address college athletes\u2019 compensation remains stalled in the House after being yanked from the voting schedule in May following unanimous opposition from the caucus.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=394\">NC bill could bar people under 21 from buying hemp-derived products<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators promoted their legislation Wednesday to set national standards for college athletes\u2019 compensation, calling the compromise bill the best available option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u2018What\u2019s the alternative?\u2019: US Sens. 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