As the Protect College Sports Act builds momentum in Washington following its passage in the Senate, the leaders of Florida State, Miami, Clemson and North Carolina sent a letter to House leadership earlier this week requesting changes to the bill’s realignment rules.
In its current form, the PCSA caps power conferences at 20 members and requires any school moving from one power conference to another to spend three years as an independent before joining its new league. That waiting period would expire
six years after the law takes effect.
The letter, obtained by Tomahawk Nation in a Freedom of Information request, was addressed to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer and starts off by noting the schools’ larger support for the bill as a whole, but then quickly moves into: “There is, however, one provision that we believe warrants adjustment—Section 205 as it pertains to institutional movement between conferences.”
“The three-year independence requirement would impose a significant additional consequence on an institution seeking to change conferences, particularly when conferences and their members have already negotiated the financial terms surrounding an exit.”
The schools are clearly working as a group, as noted by the statement: “As the legislation moves to the House, our coalition has worked together to identify a compromise that addresses our concerns…”
It concludes with the main asks: “Increase the conference membership cap from 20 to 22 institutions” and “Remove the independence requirement for an institution departing one covered conference before joining another.”
Florida Sens. Ashley Moody and Rick Scott, both Republicans, pushed back hard against the bill over its realignment rules, voting against advancing it in procedural votes last month. Moody voted for final passage after the Senate adopted her amendment raising the conference cap from 19 to 20, while Scott voted against it.
Reports surfaced over the summer that Florida State and other ACC schools had lobbied lawmakers for changes to the conference realignment provisions. Moody also proposed an amendment that would have allowed a school to avoid the then-five-year independence requirement if it withdrew from its conference within 180 days of the bill’s enactment. The independence period was later shortened from five years to three.
FSU and Miami were pinpointed as the primary opponents to the current state of the bill by New York Yankees president Randy Levine, who is vice chairman of the Saving College Sports Roundtable.
“What’s very disturbing to me,” Levine said to Ross Dellenger, “is that we have this amazing bipartisan bill which got 77 votes in the US Senate, where the Moody amendment was passed, and yet, principally Miami and Florida State continue to try and undermine the bill, which even they say is great for the game, over the fact that they want to blow up the ACC when the Big Ten and SEC have told me as recently as today that neither has any plans to expand.
According to Dellenger, more than a dozen House lawmakers, most from Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, have committed to signing a separate letter to House leadership calling for the expansion provision to be scrapped. A person close to one of the bill’s authors told him those changes are nonstarters.
The House isn’t scheduled to return until Nov. 9, after the midterm elections, with any changes to the bill meaning it would get sent back to the Senate.
