Coach Prime endorses Protect College Sports Act in political ad
Colorado head coach Deion Sanders is appearing in a political ad endorsing the Protect College Sports Act, which has been airing during the early college football season.
For the commercial, Sanders appeared atop the University of Colorado’s Champions Center, saying he is helping “the next generation find their spotlight.” Although it is a multi-million-dollar advertising campaign, Sanders did not receive payment for the advertisement, according to Front Office Sports.
“[It] strengthens historically black colleges and universities and keeps both men’s and women’s sports strong,” Sanders said in the ad.
Sanders is an influential voice on HBCUs. He previously coached at Jackson State, an HBCU, from 2020 to 2022, posting a 27-6 record. He is also currently one of 14 Black head coaches out of 138 FBS teams.
“Coach Prime” joined former Alabama head coach Nick Saban as a spokesperson for the bill, which took its largest step last Tuesday. The Senate voted 72-24 to invoke cloture and go to the floor for debate. The Senate is targeting a final vote for Wednesday or Thursday.
If the bill clears the Senate as expected, it still must pass the House of Representatives, which is in recess until after midterm elections. The bill has President Donald Trump’s support, with the bill's main sponsor, Sen. Ted Cruz, suggesting him to sign it on ESPN's College Gameday.
“That’s not my concern, my concern is on this team,” Sanders said about his endorsement. “I was asked to do something, I did it because I thought it was the right thing to do … I shot it, and that was it, haven’t thought about it since … I’m for it.”
The Protect College Sports Act seeks federal intervention and proposes fixes in college sports. The bill would give schools $22.5 million to retain players, on top of the roughly $21.6 million cap already in place from the House v. NCAA settlement, with a $5 million pool for women’s sports. If the bill is enacted in its current form, Colleges would have nearly $50 million to spend on athletics.
However, the bill's key provision would grant the NCAA, universities and conferences a limited antitrust exemption. This would allow those entities to sell media rights while regulating money and players without the threat of litigation.
The bipartisan bill also aims to curb the run-amok transfer portal. The antitrust exemption will reinstate the NCAA’s 2021-23 policy that allows players one transfer for immediate play and penalizes them for a season after. But that has exceptions. In the event of a coaching change or if a player is a graduate transfer, those players will be allowed to play right away.
The Protect College Sports Act has drawn opposition from civil rights groups such as the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus. They each have similar reasons for opposing it. Each group criticized the bill for giving federal protections to athletic institutions through its antitrust exemption, without equally protecting athletes.
“The so-called Protect College Sports Act does little to actually protect the student-athletes who make this multi-billion-dollar industry possible,” NAACP president Derrick Johnson said. “Instead, it shields powerful institutions from accountability … We cannot continue to ask Black student-athletes to generate billions in revenue on the field and the court while they shoulder all the risk and receive none of the guaranteed security they deserve. Sharecropping is over.” .
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