Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican co-author of a Senate bill to revamp college sports, is making a direct appeal to Black lawmakers in Congress that inaction on the legislation would hurt HBCUs.
Cruz, the Senate Commerce Committee Chair, and ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., say they have been reaching out to members of the Congressional Black Caucus as they search for the votes needed to move their proposal through both chambers, according to Roll Call.
But the CBC has given no sign it is ready to support the Protect College Sports Act. Instead, the caucus has asked them to pause.
In May, the caucus helped stall a House bill amid anger over redistricting fights that weakened Black voting power in several southern states.
In a June 3 letter, the group extended that same skepticism to the Cruz-Cantwell plan, warning against advancing college athletics legislation while Black political representation is under attack.
“The Congressional Black Caucus believes institutions that profit from Black talent and Black communities have a responsibility to stand with those communities when their fundamental rights are under attack. Silence in the face of injustice is not neutrality—it is complicity,” the letter said.
What would the Protect College Sports Act do?
The bill would establish federal NIL rights for student-athletes, require that contracts clearly outline athletes’ obligations and compensation, and cap agent fees at 5 percent. It would also override conflicting state NIL laws, create a student-athlete ombudsman, set transfer and eligibility standards, ban salary cap-evasion tactics, and prohibit the formation of a college sports “super league.”
Cruz: failure to act would be devastating for HBCUs
“If Congress doesn’t act, the consequences will be devastating. They will be devastating when the president of TSU says that they would be devastating for HBCUs,” Cruz said. “They would be devastating for hundreds of thousands, and over time, millions of athletes — many of whom are African American, many of whom are Hispanic, many of whom are from economically disadvantaged environments.”
At a recent roundtable, Cruz cited comments from Texas Southern University President James W. Crawford III, who suggested that HBCUs are already under strain in the current NIL era amid a financial arms race for talent.
He compared the environment to a “Hunger Games” style competition, one that favors the wealthiest programs and leaves smaller schools scrambling to keep up.
“It’s about competing. … If you get at the ability where you have some controls on costs [and] you don’t have this continual bidding, you’re not in a constant recruiting mode because now you’re constantly trying to recruit that great player that just beat your team,” Crawford said.
The fight over the Senate bill comes after the CBC and the NAACP helped force House GOP leaders to pull a separate college sports measure from consideration.
They argued that bill would have helped powerful schools and conferences while hurting athletes, and they linked it to broader battles over Black representation in Congress.
Cruz says he wants a vote in both chambers before the fall semester and football season begin.
