Senate Passes Protect College Sports Act

The United States Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act (PCSA) with a bipartisan vote of 77-22 on Monday night.

The bill aims to create a uniform framework for which NCAA student-athletes can be financially compensated.

“Student-athletes from across the country and all three NCAA Divisions worked hard to get this legislation moving and thanks to their advocacy, the bill just received a massive, bipartisan vote in the Senate,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said in a statement Monday night.

“Now the bill moves to the U.S. House of Representatives and there is much work left to do to ensure student-athlete benefits are codified into federal law and future generations of young people can access those benefits and use college sports as the launching point for their careers.”

One major aspect of the PCSA is granting the NCAA antitrust exemption, which would create a “salary cap” for how much schools can pay athletes. The senate also denied a provision to the PCSA that would cap coach’s salaries at $5 million and limit how often they can take new jobs, per ESPN.

As for transfer rules, the PCSA aims to enforce the recent “five-for-five” ruling which limits player eligibility to five years either after they turn 19 years old or graduate high school.

The next stop for the PCSA will be the House of Representatives in November. If it does not pass before the new congress members take over in January after midterm elections, the process for the bill will restart.

Find more coverage of the Protect College Sports Act at WV Sports Now.