The Protect College Sports Act: What it means to Ohio State and to Buckeye fans

Breaking down the proposed legislation now supported by the Big Ten and SEC.

Congress is working to pass the Protect College Sports Act. (Photo courtesy of the United States Government)

COLUMBUS — The Big Ten and SEC announced Friday night that they support the Protect College Sports Act. So what does that mean for Ohio State and fans of the Buckeyes?

First, this bill still has to pass. It would have been dead without Big Ten and SEC support. So this was a huge step. But it doesn’t guarantee the 60 votes in the Senate, doesn’t guarantee it gets done this week, and doesn’t guarantee what the House of Representatives will do.

But analysts most informed on the subject think it has a good chance of passing.

Second, this is all being done by the conferences and Congress without player input. Leaders in college sports do not want players to form a union and do not want players to be deemed employees.

The surest way to make rules regarding paying players, transfers and eligibility would be to bargain those issues with the players.

This is instead of that. This is Congress granting a partial antitrust exemption for college sports to make rules about limiting player payouts and limiting player movement without bargaining. It’s possible these issues will never truly be settled until the colleges treat the players as partners.

But if passed, this would be a major step to allow some enforcement without constant lawsuits, like we have now.

The attempt here is to break down what matters most to the Buckeyes and to you. We have talked to people about this, but we are not the foremost experts on the subject. This analysis leans on the reporting of many journalists who have worked diligently on this topic. We would encourage you to read them as well.

Ross Dellenger, Yahoo!

Brandon Marcello, CBSSports.com

Ralph Russo, The Athletic

Amanda Christovich, Front Office Sports

Politico

We don’t love to discuss this stuff until it really matters to you. This would matter.

I think rules are good and structure is important, and the attempt to implement them is a worthy cause. While I support the rights of players, I also think things have come so far from past decades, when players couldn’t get paid and couldn’t freely transfer, that enforcing some rules without bargaining with them still leaves players in a far better situation than they have ever been in. I also think we swung too far with unlimited player earning power and movement. If college sports are like professional sports now, every pro sport limits earning power and movement in some way.

Yes, those rules are bargained. But getting to a players union is so complicated, I’m OK with doing this now. Because I think some rules are better than no rules, and I don’t think what would happen with this bill is unfair to players. Could it be better? Yes. But this is a mostly reasonable step.

With that, here are the most important aspects of the bill for you.