Unanimous Consent Request--S. 4177

Floor Speech

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Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, the Senator from Alabama is right about one thing, and that is that college sports is facing a crisis.

Today, we see a free-for-all driven by ever-increasing spending on football and basketball. Non-revenue sports are paying the price, with more than 100 programs cut since 2024. Women's and Olympic sports are paying so dearly that it is hard for them to continue to compete.

We are well aware of this in the State of Washington. Conferences have been realigned in such a way that athletes are traveling across the country every week just to play one another.

But we cannot solve this problem facing college sports' ecosystem by just addressing transfers and eligibility. We need a solution. I believe we need a Federal law on the NIL rights for athletes, for their health and their safety. And we need a solution that will create more opportunities for future collegiate athletes, and we need a solution that will grow a bigger pie for those non-revenue sports, so they too can keep their teams competitive.

The good news is that the Protect College Sports Act that Senator Cruz and I introduced does those things. Most importantly, it enshrines into Federal law student-athlete rights to earn compensation for their name, image, and likeness, and for student-athletes to receive a share of revenues from their school's media and advertising and sponsorship and tickets.

Athletes will also be protected from unscrupulous agents and deceptive or predatory contracts, and believe me, that is going on right now. You could pass our bill just for that alone. And the bill establishes scholarship protections for athletes, healthcare requirements for athletes for playing, and the health and safety standards that I mentioned. All of these are important tools.

On the other hand, my colleague from Alabama's Student Athlete Act seeks only to address eligibility rules and the transfer portal. It does nothing to address these larger issues of athletes' rights, of women's and Olympic sports, and the need for revenue. In fact, this bill simply gives the NCAA the ability to make rules in these two subject areas without the broader health and safety protections that we seek in our legislation.

If enacted, it would leave athletes more vulnerable for the future. For eligibility, it calls for 5 years from a date certain with absolutely no exceptions. Should we not grant athletes exceptions for pregnancy if a student-athlete gets pregnant and needs to take time off? Should they lose their eligibility for that? For religious missions? If an athlete decides to go on a religious mission, should they lose their eligibility for that? Or should they lose their eligibility if they stand up to defend our Nation and want to come back and play? Should they lose their eligibility for that? Are we really going to punish student athletes because of these issues--because of parenthood, because of church or country? I don't think so. I cannot support a rule that would punish student athletes for this.

And for the transfer rule under this bill, I have the same concerns. Again, we see that there are no exceptions, no exceptions for things like if the athlete's sport is cut--it is impossible for them to compete in the next season. Or if athletes suffer from sexual assault or harassment. As if that hasn't happened in college sports, trust me, it has happened. I do not believe a woman facing sexual assault should have to play for the same people, and she deserves to get transferred out of that school.

So I know my colleague from Alabama is trying to be well-meaning. He has said several times tonight that my colleague and I have worked hard on this legislation. We have. We have because we believe, just like he does, that it is preserving college sports that is critical--not just for those, the 2 percent of the system, or 3 percent, that might play in a sport that does generate revenue, but for the 500,000 athletes that are part of our collegiate system.

We cannot continue to see these athlete numbers diminish. We can't wake up and be in the next Olympics and wonder what happened to the training of our athletes, only to find out they got cut because we couldn't end an arms race in the football spree that we are seeing today.

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