The College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) has expressed support for the Protect College Sports Act after a recent revision adding safeguards for women’s and Olympic sports.
In its quarterly update emailed to members on Tuesday, the CSCAA said its been working with Congress over the last few months on the bill and advocated for the changes that were ultimately made to protect women’s and Olympic sports.
“Over the past several months, we’ve worked closely with members of Congress, including the offices of Senator Cruz and Senator Cantwell. The most recent markups include language we advocated for regarding sport sponsorship minimums, along with additional protections for Olympic and women’s sports,” the CSCAA said.
“Overall, the CSCAA supports the bill as currently written because of its provisions protecting Olympic and women’s sports. The PCSA represents the strongest bipartisan path forward and includes several important protections that we helped champion. As always, we’ll continue educating lawmakers and advocating in Washington, D.C., for policies that strengthen and protect collegiate Olympic sports.”
After the landmark bipartisan bill was introduced by Senators Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell in May, a markup was made in mid-June that requires schools generating at least $80 million in annual athletic revenue to maintain current scholarship and roster levels for non-revenue sports.
This was a notable change from the original version of the bill, which tied schools’ requirement of maintaining current scholarship and roster numbers in non-revenue sports to whether or not they opted in to pooling media rights. If a school did not opt into pooling media rights, they would’ve had the ability to drop scholarship and roster levels in non-revenue sports like swimming & diving.
Under the new language, any athletic department generating at least $80 million in annual revenue would be required to maintain the scholarship and roster levels for non-revenue sports that it had in 2024-25, regardless of whether media rights are pooled.
The bill also earned public support from the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) after this revision.
The bill was created to establish national standards for athlete transfers, player eligibility rules, NIL enforcement and revenue sharing while also providing the NCAA with limited antitrust protection, shielding it from constant legal challenges over eligibility and transfer disputes.
After the Senate Commerce Committee approved the bill by a 19-9 bipartisan vote on June 18, the Protect College Sports Act now moves to a full Senate vote.
Glad Senator Cantrell has jumped on the “Women’s Sport Train” since she had been on record as being unable to define “woman”.
This perhaps proves that late in life people can learn!