The Senate had several things they were looking to get done and the PCSA was sacrificed in lieu of things like making sure the government was funded till after the election and confirming a new Attorney General. When they reconvene back in September, it’ll be less than two months until the election and the college football season will be in full motion. So the question ultimately becomes, is the promise of a vote a sign that the bill could move on or should the influential leaders in college sports just go ahead and assume they need to fix their problems themselves?
You probably already know the answer.
Hopefully we all learned that for a bill to become law, you have to have the bill pass both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Should the bill have any differences in how it was passed, the two sides have to get together to make one bill where it will be voted on again, and then the President has to not veto it. The fact that one senator from Florida has already proposed a pretty major amendment to try and help their home-state colleges get out of the ACC and the CBC’s disapproval signal just how difficult it’s going to be to get this bill moved through both houses.
Put a little more simply—the current US Government can’t agree on funding the government in such a way to not have to keep voting on it. Do you really think they’ll be able to come to an agreement on something as relatively inconsequential as college sports?
There will be likely be some movement on the bill this fall, if only because the sponsors will want to make some hay and try to do something that is bipartisan in nature. The problem is, of course, that right now was the time to get it done as the American Sports calendar really isn’t that crowded and it can make a real impact. By September when they get back together, we’ll be knee-deep in college and pro football discussion, two weeks away from hockey kicking back off, and then you have the NBA starting and MLB hitting their playoffs. The outside noise is going to grow exponentially, meanwhile all the people in Congress are going to be focusing on Election Day—meaning they want to do or not do things that will make the best move for taking control of the legislature.
Again, you don’t make noise with a college sports bill that wasn’t that popular to begin with.
The upshot of all of this is that you might as well assume this bill is dead. It’s just on life support now just waiting for when the family will feel safe pulling the plug. It’s possible that once the election is done and the new government takes control they can revive some sort of legislation, but in general it does seem like the country is just looking at the college sports infrastructure and saying “sorry, you made this mess, you’re going to have to figure it out.”
The beginning of the end of the NCAA may have been gaveled with that recess.