WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, the college sports industry enters one of the most exciting stretches of its calendar.
In Oklahoma City, a national champion will be crowned at the Women’s College World Series in a ***** le bout pitting rivals Texas and Texas Tech. At eight different on-campus super regional sites, baseball parks will be teeming with fans as a trip to Omaha is on the line.
And on Capitol Hill, inside a marble-walled committee room, with the future of college athletics at stake, a much different game is set to be played: the political one.
Former Alabama coach Nick Saban, Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua and Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould headline a lineup of witnesses testifying in a hearing before members of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday morning — perhaps the most significant of the more than a dozen hearings held here since 2020.
At the center of what’s supposed to be a more than two-hour affair is a newly introduced bill from Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell intended to reform the college athletics industry. The “Protect College Sports Act” is the most comprehensive, bipartisan college sports legislation produced during the NCAA’s seven-year lobbying effort — and it’s a bill that many believe has the best chance to pass among those introduced.
In Oklahoma City, a national champion will be crowned at the Women’s College World Series in a ***** le bout pitting rivals Texas and Texas Tech. At eight different on-campus super regional sites, baseball parks will be teeming with fans as a trip to Omaha is on the line.
And on Capitol Hill, inside a marble-walled committee room, with the future of college athletics at stake, a much different game is set to be played: the political one.
Former Alabama coach Nick Saban, Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua and Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould headline a lineup of witnesses testifying in a hearing before members of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday morning — perhaps the most significant of the more than a dozen hearings held here since 2020.
At the center of what’s supposed to be a more than two-hour affair is a newly introduced bill from Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell intended to reform the college athletics industry. The “Protect College Sports Act” is the most comprehensive, bipartisan college sports legislation produced during the NCAA’s seven-year lobbying effort — and it’s a bill that many believe has the best chance to pass among those introduced.
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