College NIL bill includes $25 million ‘retention pool’ but is that enough to sway Big Ten, SEC?

A reworked Senate bill designed to regulate college sports proposes to more than double the amount of money schools could share with players as part of a flurry of revisions designed to win the support of the Big Ten and Southeastern Conferences.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Pettiti said Tuesday at his conference’s football media days that he was waiting to review the new language in the Protect College Sports Act, and the hope is that the new version of the bill “provides a lot more help than not.”

Among the key changes would be up to $25 million devoted to a “retention” pool that would allow schools to pay athletes already on their rosters to stay. That would be in addition to the $21.3 million schools are allowed to spend this season. Some $5 million of the new money would be devoted to women’s sports.

“That’s all very specific language that has to work together with the (House) settlement, so we need to see the language on all of that,” Pettiti said.

The House settlement, which dictates the terms of revenue sharing, calls for 22% of certain revenues to be shared with the athletes. The retention pool figures to drastically change that math. Also uncertain is how it would impact name, image and likeness compensation from third parties, which allows schools to blow past the cap and many agree is the reason costs of assembling football and basketball rosters are spiraling out of control.

Jeffrey Kessler, the plaintiffs’ attorney in the House case, told The Associated Press: “I would have to see the specific provisions of the entire bill to evaluate any issues with the settlement.”

An outline of the changes made to the bill, a copy of which the AP obtained, also included changes the conferences sought over Olympic and women’s sports; avoiding creation of so-called super leagues; and making sure conferences won’t be required to participate in a media rights pooling arrangement the bill would allow.

Two other key points the conferences seek are refined language about limiting lawsuits over eligibility issues and preempting state statutes that guide NIL payments in favor of one uniform national law.

In speaking about the ramifications of the bill, Tennessee athletic director Danny White told AP this week that the best way to deal with the lawsuit issues is to let players collectively bargain.

“Even if they do act, there’s still a lot of issues that they won’t address and they probably can’t address legally,” White said.

There have been conflicting reports about how likely the bill is to reach the Senate floor, where it will need 60 votes to pass and move on to the House. Last week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, said it was unlikely the bill would reach a vote before the Senate’s begins its recess Aug. 7.

The recent action might have changed the calendar.

“There’s a long list of areas where we’d like to see some improvements, but like the commissioner said, we also recognize that we’re not going to get everything that we’d like,” said Josh Whitman, the athletic director at Illinois who was chair of the NCAA board of directors through June. “And so ultimately, we’d like to see something put together in a package where the benefits outweigh some of the potential negatives.”

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AP Sports Writers Steve Megargee in Chicago and Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tenn., contributed.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports