Tim Kaine signaled that he’s a no vote on the so-called Protect College Sports Act, with a nay vote on a procedural measure on Tuesday that sets the legislation up for a U.S. Senate floor vote.
The bipartisan bill is being championed by its sponsors as fixing everything that is wrong with college sports, but it goes about doing so by siding with the NCAA and its member schools, and dramatically limiting the basic rights of the student-athletes.
It’s akin to Congress writing a new law that would give MLB owners what they want in their upcoming tussle with the players union over the next CBA.
PCSA would put limits on what student-athletes can earn through revenue-sharing and NIL, and how often they can switch schools – the kids would only be able to transfer once without having to sit out a year, which would be a lost year, under the NCAA’s new five-for-five rule.
The crumbs for the student-athletes: schools would be required to provide health insurance as a benefit, including five years of post-eligibility medical coverage for sports-related injuries.
Like that’s a nice thing – five years for a sports-related injury.
Nobody in Congress seems familiar with CTE, which doesn’t even show up, for most, in five years.
PCSA is a knee-jerk, patchwork response that ignores the reality of college athletics, that the student-athletes are employees, have been for decades – it’s just been in the past couple of years that they’ve been getting paid (the ones not in the SEC, anyway).
The legislation we need would codify that reality – not a return to the serfdom that predated the House settlement and the advent of NIL.
“I can see some things in this bill that I like, and I’m impressed that the NCAA and college conferences, including those whose members include Virginia schools, have signaled their support. But this bill won’t be ready for primetime until it strikes the right balance to protect the best interests of student-athletes,” Kaine said in a statement on his nay vote.
There are good parts to the bill: the part limiting future conference expansion, in particular.
For that matter, what about having somebody introduce an amendment to get us back to where we were about 30 years ago, when the Big Ten actually had 10 schools, and the ACC was comprised of schools on the Atlantic Coast?
Asking for a friend – OK, several million friends.
A key issue with the legislation raised by Kaine:
Why does the bill cap compensation for student-athletes while allowing those who make massive salaries and profits from their labors — coaches, athletic directors, sports networks, online gambling operations — to rake in obscene amounts of money with no cap?
Fair point.
LSU is paying Lane Kiffin $13 million a year to lose in Week 3.
Kiffin is a loss or two more from being on the hot seat already; you can guarantee his agent made sure his contract gives him the entirety of the $91 million he’s owed over the next seven years if LSU cuts bait, which is almost certain to happen.
The problem with out-of-control spending in college athletics isn’t because the schools have to pay the kids now; it’s that they’ve been massively overpaying the adults forever.
Tim Kaine is on the side of the kids.
Notably, Mark Warner voted yay yesterday; guess whose side he’s on?
Share
Chris Graham
