NCAA president says it would be a ‘mistake’ to ‘walk away’ from Protect College Sports Act

Sports & Gaming NCAA president says it would be a ‘mistake’ to ‘walk away’ from Protect College Sports Act Comments: by Max Rego - 07/05/26 11:13 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Max Rego - 07/05/26 11:13 PM ET Comments: Link copied

NOW PLAYING

Charlie Baker, the president of the NCAA, said the Protect College Sports Act effectively “deals with” many of the issues facing his industry.

“What we’re really trying to achieve is some sort of national framework so that you can have national championships and national competitions, in which, for all intents and purposes, everybody’s playing by the same set of rules,” Baker told Ed O’Keefe on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” in an interview that aired Sunday.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee advanced the bill last month in a 19-9 vote, with 12 Republicans and seven Democrats backing it. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the chair and ranking member of the panel, respectively, crafted the legislation along with Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.).

The bill proposes granting the NCAA limited antitrust protection and outlines standards on the transfer portal, student athlete compensation and medical coverage.

It also proposes granting student athletes five years of eligibility starting with the academic year after their 19th birthday or when they graduate high school — a change the NCAA adopted for Division I sports days after the Commerce panel passed the bill.

The eligibility tweaks go into effect starting with the fall of 2027 incoming class, with the NCAA saying it “will align athletics eligibility with enrollment and graduation patterns for the general student population.”

While a host of major stakeholders, including the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12 and the NFL and NBA players associations, are backing the bill, the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference said last month “revisions are needed” to the legislation before they can support it.

During his interview with O’Keefe, Baker acknowledged the two most lucrative conferences’ “concerns” and said he has his own issues with the bill.

“But to simply walk away from something that deals with a number of the most significant challenges that face college sports at [this] point in time, in my view, would be a mistake,” the former Republican governor of Massachusetts noted.

“These folks crafted a bipartisan bill, really hard to do. Does everybody love everything about it? No. Is the process associated with crafting it done? Also, no,” Baker added. “So, let’s take seriously this opportunity to support the process, support the effort, support the parts of the bill that we believe in.

“And then continue to try and work with folks in the Senate, and hopefully ultimately folks in the House to create something that we can all get behind.”

The upper chamber is on recess for the July 4 holiday and will return to session on July 13. It will then head on a month-plus recess starting on Aug. 8, three weeks before college football season kicks off.

Add as preferred source on Google Tags Charlie Baker Chris Coons eric schmitt Maria Cantwell Ted Cruz

Comments: Link copied