Senate passed badly needed bill to reform college sports but it faces tough second half in House

The bipartisan Senate legislation to reform college sports easily passed the upper chamber this week on a remarkably bipartisan vote, but that doesn’t mean the bill is going to end up on President Trump’s desk anytime soon, On The Money has learned.It’s a shame, because everyone – from college administrators to various lawmakers to the president himself – agrees on one thing: The insane money grab that has perverted college sports now for nearly a decade – squeezing university budgets for academics and sports outside of football and basketball – needs fixing.Plus DC appears to have found some meaningful consensus on legislation known as the Protect College Sports Act, sponsored by GOP firebrand Ted Cruz of Texas and Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state.  It would put a cap on multimillion-dollar paydays that a few college athletes enjoy at the expense of everyone else involved.President Trump is a big supporter of the bill, which usually guarantees Democratic Party backlash, but it didn’t happen in this case because of the obvious need for reforms.

The bill passed the Senate on Monday night with a 77 to 22 voteAnd yet, I am hearing from the legislation’s supporters that the real battle will occur in the House.Given the political dynamics of the lower chamber, there is a real question if the Republican majority, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, can even pass this on a party-line basis, people close to the matter tell On The Money.All politics is local, as they say, and some local GOP pols particularly in Florida represent schools that do pretty well with the status quo.

Those include the University of Miami and Florida State University, which have a donor base to pay up for top players without much impact on other programs.Both schools, I am told, are weighing leaving the Atlantic Coast Conference for the Big 10 or the Southeastern Conference.That’s crazy, I am told, because neither conference wants them and Florida State couldn’t q...