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Senator says college sports is broken — but who benefits?
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- Senator says college sports is broken — but who benefits?
Speaking on Capitol Hill in testimony for the Protect College Sports Act of 2026 , Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), a co-sponsor and author of the proposed bill, hammered home Wednesday, June 3, that college sports as currently constructed are in "crisis."
Following remarks from bill co-sponsor Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Cantwell laid bare what she sees as a dire situation and worse future for college athletics without congressional intervention.
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"We agree today that college athletics are in crisis, and we agree that the system is broken and unsustainable," Cantwell said. "Universities, athletes, and fans are pleading with us to do something about this issue.
"Schools are cutting women's and Olympic programs, and they are dropping scholarships – I think we have a poster out here that shows that – erasing roster slots to try to keep pace with out of control spending in football and basketball. I think, as (former Alabama football) coach (Nick) Saban says in his statement, that this has turned into pay-for-play. We cannot have a pay-for-play system and then continue to cut this many women and Olympic athletes in various programs."
Cantwell backed up her assertions of whittled opportunities when she introduced into testimony direct data points – including an oversized posterboard that Cruz preserved into the proceeding's record. She noted more than 100 varsity sports teams and more than 1,000 NCAA scholarships.
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"Kansas, Colorado, Rutgers, and Washington State, [in] my home state – beloved institutions with strong alumni bases and storied histories – are getting hollowed out," Cantwell said. "And even if the universities are not cutting sports programs, they are taxing students who are not athletes and taking money out of their general funds to cover ballooning athletic program deficit.
"James Madison University now charges every student an extra $2,400 a year for athletics, whether or not they ever step on a field. What once felt like a shared national pastime has become a free-for-all, a money flowing with few guardrails, players and coaches constantly moving, and schools struggling to keep pace."
To recap, Sens. Cruz and Cantwell contend that their Protect College Sports Act of 2026 will accomplish the following dozen tenets:
"Ends the roster chaos, creates enforceable standards on recruiting, tampering, and NIL disclosures; protects student athletes' right to earn from their own NIL; enables enforcement of House settlement on revenue sharing and fake NIL deals; sanctions against agents that take advantage of student athletes, facilitate player poaching, and recruit tampering; protects women's sports, Olympic sports, and scholarship opportunities; preserves historic rivalries; keeps college sports tied to education, so student athletes become successful adults; prohibits football coaches from quitting mid-season to be hired by another program; guarantees safety standards, health care, and an ombudsman for student athletes; makes TV money work for college sports with an option for schools to pool media rights; stops super league consolidation."
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While the Big Ten Conference and Southeastern Conference late Tuesday, June 2, issued a joint statement that voiced a lack of support for the current iteration of the Protect College Sports Act, Saban – the seven-time NCAA college football national championship-winning coach, who claimed all seven crowns at SEC institutions – lent his staunch support for the Act in testimony Wednesday.
Cantwell hearkened to Saban's comments – particularly where the former Alabama, LSU and Michigan State coach warned against the impending death of Olympic and women's sports without Congressional action.
"As Coach Saban notes in his testimony – and I thank you for emphasizing the effect on women and Olympic athletes. I appreciate that coming from a football coach. The whole ecosystem is important," Cantwell said.
"Coach Saban says, 'We will lose scholarships. We will lose Olympic pipelines. We will lose chances for young people who may never play professionally, but whose lives are changed by college sports.'
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"The pay-per-play antics and this failed system are putting our future Olympic athletes and future women's sports participants at risk. When you ask the American public in a poll about this, it's not football that rises to the top."
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould also warned against the negative impact of the current system on Olympic and women's sports.
"I think we've seen the data, I think the threats are real," Gould said in late-morning testimony, "and I think it's an important issue for our country and the student-athletes in those sports."
Cruz cautioned against a dire Olympics future for the United States without immediate action in collegiate athletics.
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"I think one of the really important parts of this bill is protecting women's sports and Olympic sports and non-revenue sports," Cruz said. "One of the tragedies we're seeing right now under the status quo is it seems like every single week a different college is cancelling women's sports, Olympic sports, non-revenue sports.
"If we don't act, we're going to continue to see devastation. And I, for one, don't want to see an Olympics where every gold medal goes to Russia and China and Americans are not able to compete because we've devastated the preparation of our Olympic athletes."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Maria Cantwell says NCAA sports are 'broken' in push for reform bill
