While a bill to add a new swath of regulations to college sports is generating a swell of bipartisan support, some opponents are suggesting that the bill itself is racist.The Protect College Sports Act, pushed by Sens.Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has so far survived two key hurdles in the Senate and is on its way to a final vote in the coming week.However, NAACP President Derrick Johnson, the Congressional Black Caucus and Sen.
Chris Murphy, D-Conn., one of a handful of Senate Democrats pushing against the bill, have argued that the bill would disproportionately affect Black student-athletes and put their newfound agency in decision-making granted by name, image and likeness (NIL) back into the hands of White coaches and college presidents.SENATE MOVES TO REIN IN COLLEGE SPORTS 'WILD WEST' WITH SWEEPING NEW RULES FOR PLAYERS, SCHOOLSFormer coach Jay Wright, Special Assistant to the President of Villanova University, and Craig Robinson, Executive Director of the National Association of Coaches, discuss the campus and coaching climate with author and moderator Dana O'Neil during a roundtable on the future of college basketball sponsored by the Big East Conference at the Empire State Building on Oct.20, 2025, in New York City.
(Getty Images)"It's a civil rights issue, that's the reason the NAACP is strongly opposing this bill, because they see it as a civil rights issue," Murphy told Fox News Digital."I didn't make that up.
That's the reality.""The athletes who will be most affected by this bill are largely Black athletes, and the people who will be helped by this bill are largely White coaches and White college sports executives," he continued."I’m not the one who sees this as a civil rights issue, the NAACP opposes it because they see this as a civil rights issue."The Protect College Sports Act would broadly add restrictions to the transfer portal for student-athletes and create a uniform eligibility framework of five years, recruiting and ta...