WASHINGTON — Former longtime University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban and others testified Wednesday in support of a bipartisan bill aimed at overhauling a college sports system in which student-athletes can increasingly earn millions of dollars while moving freely between schools.
The leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee held the hearing as they push legislation unveiled last week that supporters hope can break the congressional gridlock over how to regulate college athletics. However, it’s already facing criticism from some senators and the two most influential conferences in college sports.
The bill, known as the Protect College Sports Act and introduced by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, would regulate payments to athletes, limit them to one “free” transfer (not impacting immediate eligibility) during their careers, and create a “Lane Kiffin Rule” restricting coaches from leaving programs during the season.
Cruz touted the proposal as “the last, best hope we have to save college sports.”
“If you had the biggest, baddest Ferrari that you could ever have and it was going 150 miles an hour toward the Grand Canyon, somebody needs to tap the brakes. And I think that’s what we all need to do here,” Saban said in his opening remarks.