SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey Just Admitted Congress Is About to Let College Sports Reform Die Again

Congress killed college sports reform three times this year before quietly trying again.

Now the Senate's last shot at fixing it is running out of time before recess.

And the SEC's own commissioner just admitted why this might be the last chance anyone gets.

Cruz and Cantwell Are Working Through the Night While the Clock Runs Out

Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell built the Protect College Sports Act as the rescue mission after the House torched the SCORE Act – not once, not twice, but three separate times, with Speaker Mike Johnson unable to muscle it through on any of them.

Every collapse came from special interests protecting their own turf instead of the athletes everyone claims to care about.

Cruz and Cantwell's bill cleared the Senate Commerce Committee in June with real momentum behind it.

Then the SEC and the Big Ten showed up and started rewriting the terms.

A spokesperson for Cantwell told Fox News/OutKick that staffers are "working on language through the night" – and that's not how anyone spends a Thursday evening unless something is actually at stake.

Neither conference had seen a word of the new language by Thursday night.

The SEC and Big Ten Are Protecting Their TV Money Not Your Kids Playing College Ball

Here's what nobody wants to say out loud in Washington.

The holdup isn't really about eligibility rules or transfer limits.

It's about television money.

The bill would let every school pool its broadcast rights into a single national package, instead of each conference cutting its own deal.

That threatens the massive individual TV deals the SEC and Big Ten have spent years building.

So while both conferences spent years demanding Congress step in and save college sports, now that Congress is actually trying, the two richest leagues in America are the ones standing in the way.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune signaled to reporters this week that the bill probably won't make the floor before recess.

That's the deadline everyone in Washington keeps pointing to.

Trump Already Solved This and Congress Might Still Miss Its Own Deadline

While Cruz and Cantwell fight for a floor vote, President Trump already acted.

Executive Order 14400, "Urgent National Action to Save College Sports," takes effect August 1 – the exact same window Congress is now blowing past.

Trump's order forces schools to comply or lose federal funding, and it locks players into one free transfer over a five-year college career.

Outkick founder Clay Travis called the plan "common sense & solid" when Trump signed it in April.

The president didn't wait for a Congress that had already let the SCORE Act die in the House.

He used the power of his desk instead.

Now Congress has a choice. Pass real legislation before recess, or let Trump's executive order become the only adult in the room running college sports.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey isn't pretending the clock has stopped.

He warned that if the bill drags into September, lawmakers move straight into budget fights and "we're not at the finish line yet" becomes the permanent state of college athletics reform.

Translation: if this bill dies now, it dies for good. Congress won't circle back. They never do.

Congress Has One Job Left Before Recess

Every year college athletics limps along without real rules is another year courts and chaos run the sport instead of Washington.

The transfer portal turned into a free agency free-for-all.

NIL collectives turned into a shadow payroll system with zero oversight.

Small athletic departments are cutting entire programs because they can't compete financially with the SEC and Big Ten's television empires.

Meanwhile every state still runs its own patchwork of NIL laws.

A five-star recruit in Texas can chase money no booster in Ohio is legally allowed to offer him.

Courts keep deciding what Congress refuses to touch.

Judges who've never called a play now set the rules for how college football operates in this country.

That's not policy. That's Congress handing its job to the bench and hoping nobody notices.

Trump saw that and moved. Congress had its chance under a different bill's name, and let it die.

If Cruz and Cantwell can't get the SEC and Big Ten to stop protecting their own bank accounts long enough to pass this before recess, the message to every parent with a kid playing college sports is simple.

Washington talks. Trump delivers.

One side is legislating. The other is just waiting for Congress to get out of its own way.

Sources:

• Trey Wallace, "Running out of time: SEC, Big Ten wait on 'Protect College Sports Act' revisions as August recess nears," Fox News/OutKick, July 24, 2026.
• Trey Wallace, "Clock is ticking as Senators Ted Cruz, Maria Cantwell push for SEC, Big Ten buy-in on college sports bill," Fox News/OutKick, June 2026.
• The White House, "President Trump is Saving College Sports," WhiteHouse.gov, April 2026.
• Federal Register, "Urgent National Action To Save College Sports," Executive Order 14400, April 9, 2026.