Trump, Levine and Campbell plot college sports bill push

The bill already cleared the Senate. The House is the problem, so the President brought in the 2 guys running the White House push on it.

Ross Dellenger

@RossDellenger

President Donald Trump and key White House staffers met today in the Oval Office with Yankees president Randy Levine & Cody Campbell on the future of the Protect College Sports Act, sources tell @YahooSports. Trump continues to aggressively push House members to pass the bill.

Some background on who was in the room. Levine is the Yankees president and the vice chair of Trump's Saving College Sports roundtable. Campbell is the Texas Tech booster and oil-and-gas guy who sits as a senior member of that same group. The 2 of them were the main operators behind the bill getting through the Senate, where it passed 77-22. Trump called it "a really big deal" afterward and said it "will not only save college sports, it will save the colleges themselves."

So what does the bill do? A lot. It gives the NCAA sweeping federal antitrust protection to enforce its rules, caps what athletes can make in NIL money, guarantees scholarships for 10 years after eligibility runs out, and lets athletes transfer once without sitting out. That is pretty much the entire wishlist the college sports establishment has been chasing since the House settlement blew the old model up.

Ross Dellenger

@RossDellenger

Levine and Campbell - appointed leaders of the WH's congressional efforts - held strategic talks on the bill’s fate in the House. The House is not returning to session until mid-November and hurdles remain for the bill in that chamber, as explained here - t.co/d6nZPLbw1p

The calendar is ugly. With the House out until mid-November and a December 17 target to finish the year, ESPN counts only 20 legislative days left. The list of House concerns is long too: athlete employment status, the international player cap, HBCU funding, Black athlete representation, and the Congressional Black Caucus opposes the current version. The fight getting the most attention right now, though, is conference realignment.

Here's that piece. As written, the bill caps conferences at 20 schools, which leaves room for the Big Ten to add 2 more and the SEC to add 4. Any school jumping from 1 power conference to another would have to sit out 3 years without a league before joining its new one. The point is to stop another Pac-12-style collapse. Florida State, Clemson, Miami and North Carolina hate it, and it's easy to see why. Their presidents and chancellors sent House leadership a letter asking for 22 teams per conference and an end to the 3-year waiting period. In plain English: keep the door open so we can get out of the ACC.

Ted Cruz's camp did not take that well. His spokesperson sent Yahoo Sports a statement firing straight back at the 4 schools.

Ross Dellenger

@RossDellenger

A spokesperson for Sen. Ted Cruz releases a statement to @YahooSports in response to the push from FSU, Miami, UNC and Clemson to change the expansion provision in the Protect College Sports Act. "They expect everyone to bend but refuse to budge."

Ross Dellenger@RossDellenger

President Donald Trump and key White House staffers met today in the Oval Office with Yankees president Randy Levine & Cody Campbell on the future of the Protect College Sports Act, sources tell @YahooSports. Trump continues to aggressively push House members to pass the bill.

"They expect everyone to bend but refuse to budge" is about as close as a Senate office gets to telling 4 universities to pound sand. Cruz has argued that without the provision, the SEC and Big Ten could eventually join forces on a super league. Fair point. It's still a little rich to lecture FSU and Clemson about stability when the 20-team cap leaves the 2 big leagues room to keep raiding, while the schools actually stuck in the middle get a 3-year penalty for trying to follow.

Ross Dellenger

@RossDellenger

The expansion provision remains an incredibly divisive issue that could prevent the bill's passage in the House. The four ACC schools are encouraging their House lawmakers to have the provision adjusted to provide them flexibility to move. Background - t.co/j2ljHXBqzF

That is the real stakes of Friday's Oval Office meeting. Trump is pushing House members hard, and Levine and Campbell are the ones who have to turn that pressure into votes. But if the ACC 4 get their own House delegations to dig in on expansion, the bill that cruised through the Senate could stall out over a few Atlantic Coast schools that want an exit. Watch what Florida and the Carolinas' House members say when Congress comes back in November. That's where this thing either moves or dies.