Senate passes major overhaul of college sports rules: ‘Bringing order to chaos’

WASHINGTON — A major bipartisan bill to overhaul college athletics nationwide passed the Senate, clearing a key hurdle and setting up a potentially divisive political showdown in the House of Representatives.

The chamber passed the Protect College Sports Act, which aims to rein in compensation for student-athletes and place new limits on transfers, on Monday, Sept. 28. The vote was 77-22.

The success of the measure — arguably the most significant piece of legislation the Senate will pass before recessing until the midterms — marked a moment of significant progress for a yearslong push by lawmakers to intervene in college sports regulation.

Sen. Ted Cruz, the bill's main Republican architect alongside Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, told USA TODAY Sports before it passed that it would help curb a "spending spiral where virtually every athletic department is losing millions of dollars."

"The most important part of the bill is bringing order to chaos," said Cruz, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. "College sports is the Wild West. There are essentially no rules."

Yet just a month before the fall elections, the bill is inflaming stark divisions among congressional Democrats, many of whom have been under pressure from civil rights and…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/