Sen. Eric Schmitt says Protect College Sports Act has 60 Senate votes

Senator Eric Schmitt, R‑Mo., told the Associated Press Sports Editors meeting that the Protect College Sports Act likely has the 60 votes needed to clear the Senate. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz (R‑TX) and Maria Cantwell (D‑WA), would give the NCAA and member conferences limited liability protection, pre‑empt a patchwork of state laws governing name, image and likeness (NIL) payments, and allow conferences to pool media‑rights revenues.

The legislation faces opposition from the SEC and Big Ten, which have met with the sponsors to negotiate changes. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey warned that the bill could increase litigation and suggested rewrites to the civil‑lawsuit provisions. Even if it clears the Senate, the measure would still need to survive a narrowly divided House, where both parties have raised concerns about related proposals such as the SCORE Act.