Big Ten, SEC support college sports bill, reviving Senate chances - ESPN

The Big Ten and SEC agreed Friday night to support a Senate bill that seeks to regulate college sports, ending a breakneck week of negotiations and pulling the bipartisan measure out of what looked like a certain death spiral.

School presidents from both conferences voted to back the bill after receiving last-minute concessions over language regarding third-party name-image-likeness deals and the so-called «associated entities» that often make those arrangements.

More details need to be worked out, but the headline is that the bill still has a chance to earn the 60 votes it needs to halt debate and head to an up-or-down vote before the Senate heads for summer break next Friday.

The summer recess was increasingly looking like a hard deadline for the Protect College Sports Act, a bipartisan effort headed by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

After the conferences, which had balked at large sections of the bill, put out a short release announcing they supported the act «as currently drafted,» Cantwell went on social media and said: «Good. Now progress can be made in protecting women and Olympic athletes and moving the legislation closer to the President's desk.»

President Donald Trump, who has also been seeking fixes for an industry that now pays its players millions, got involved late Thursday, which helped push the parties back to the negotiating table.

Cody Campbell, the Texas Tech regent who has played a big role in shaping this policy, called the SEC and Big Ten support "a major breakthrough that moves us closer to a Senate vote — and a better future" for college sports.

Increased salary cap, new language entice holdout leagues

The most groundbreaking part of the reworked deal is the $27.5 million