College sports has been begging Washington for a federal fix on NIL and revenue sharing for years now, and once again Congress is finding new ways to stall. Pete Thamel dropped the news that the Protect College Sports Act hit another delay, this time straight from the top of the Senate.
Pete Thamel flagged the fresh delay, credited to reporting from Dan Murphy.
Another delay for the college sports bill in Congress, per @DanMurphyESPN.
This isn't some minor procedural hiccup. The Senate's summer recess runs from Aug. 10 through Sept. 11, and with the delay attributed to Thune, that leaves the bill with almost no runway before Congress adjourns and the calendar flips toward November. Thamel and Dan Murphy laid out just how bad the math looks now.
Thamel's follow-up story with Dan Murphy breaks down why the bill now faces a "very small window" to get through Congress before November.
The Protect College Sports Act always had long odds of passing. Story with @DanMurphyESPN explaining why news of today's delay from Senate Majority Leader John Thune means the bill faces a "very small window" of getting through Congress prior to November. https://t.co/HB6mCSOKmS
The bill itself, backed by a bipartisan group including Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz and ranking member Maria Cantwell, is trying to build federal guardrails around the post-House-settlement world: capping revenue share by tying it to the settlement's benefits pool limit, regulating agents, and setting up whistleblower protections. It's the kind of legislation the power conferences have wanted for a while, since right now schools are left navigating a patchwork of state NIL laws and settlement terms with zero federal backstop. But wanting a bill and getting one to the floor are two very different things, and this is not the first time a version of this effort has stalled out in Congress.
That's what makes SEC commissioner Greg Sankey's comments to ESPN so pointed. Sankey made clear the conference still hasn't even seen the actual adjusted language lawmakers are working with, which makes it impossible for the SEC to take a real position on the bill.
Greg Sankey told ESPN the SEC hasn't seen the revised bill language needed to weigh in.
Greg Sankey to ESPN earlier today before the news: "A lot of conversations, but we really need to see what adjustments are being made to determine our position." He added: "We have not seen language. We need to see language."
Sankey's frustration tracks with reporting that it's been weeks since stakeholders got anything substantial to review, even as the clock ticks toward recess. When the guy running the most powerful conference in the country is saying "we need to see language" this late in the process, that's not a great sign for anyone hoping this gets done before the fall semester, let alone before the 2026 season kicks off under another year of settlement-era chaos. Every delay here just means more time operating in the current gray zone of revenue caps, agent rules, and NIL enforcement with no federal law to lean on, which is exactly the mess this bill was supposed to fix in the first place.