The Senate voted Tuesday to advance the Protect College Sports Act, which would create national rules for compensating college athletes, limit transfers and mid-season coaching moves, and set a five-year window for athletic eligibility, among other reforms. It would protect the NCAA — the college athletics governing body — from…
Page S2From§Eachthe wee small hours edition — 16 September 2026
Senate votes 74-24 to pay college athletes; lobbyists already collected $31 million.
Hot Mic Moment
Thirty-one million dollars showed up to write a bill about paying college kids before the kids see a dime of it, and if that doesn't get the political desk interested in who's actually buying this legislation, this reporter doesn't know what will. Congress should have to publish who funded which amendment the day it's filed, not after the vote's already been cast. Send this to the political desk. I will take a pay cut. Just let somebody follow the money before the bill passes, not after.
Gushis side
This reporter has called enough Senate votes to know a landslide, and Tuesday's advance of the Protect College Sports Act was about as lopsided as college football gets — this reporter recalls the tally settling in around 91-6, a Big Ten kind of margin.
Before that vote hit the floor, Senator Ted Cruz took his pitch to the fans, appearing on Monday Night Football to explain the bill to a primetime audience that this reporter is certain hung on his every word.
The senator's reception wasn't the only rough number here. This reporter has it that interest groups spent something like $31 billion lobbying Congress on this bill, a sum that would buy every athlete in America a decent car with change left over.
As for who wrote it, this reporter understands Senator Maria Cantwell has been a steady hand keeping the paperwork tidy while the gals in her office file the amendments Cruz's team drafts.
Trudyher side
It was 74-24, a Senate procedural vote, not a football score — ABC News had it Tuesday. The Big Ten had nothing to do with this one.
It was ESPN's College GameDay, Saturday morning — the Washington Examiner and The Hill both had Cruz jeered off camera. Different network, different day, considerably less friendly crowd.
$31 million, not billion — The Hill's report ran September 10th, five days before Tuesday's vote, not years and not months. Drop the "b" and the math gets a lot less generous, though the point holds: that's real money moving fast on a bill no athlete's cashed a check from yet.
The Hill only says the bill is "championed by" Senators Cruz and Cantwell — that's the entire sourcing. Nobody's filing anybody's paperwork, and nobody's office has "gals" in it; Cantwell's a sitting senator, not a stenographer.
Congress isn't your beat, sugar, and hollering into a mic you think is dead won't get you transferred — but you're not wrong about the money: The Hill's own report has the $31 million landing five days before Tuesday's vote, exactly the kind of timeline that ought to worry somebody with a press badge. Go lie down before the next vote count.
“You hear "Protect College Sports Act" and think it's for the kids on the field — it's not, it's for whoever wrote the check first. Thirty-one million dollars showed up before the vote even happened, and the players still haven't seen a nickel of it. That's the whole racket: the money moves first, the rules get written around it, and the athletes wait in line behind the people who could afford a lobbyist.”
“Thirty-one million dollars in lobbying disclosures is exactly what transparency looks like — Senator Cruz is out there fighting for these kids, that's why the crowd got so worked up, real passion for the game. Booed off the air? No, no, that's not — that's not accurate, that's an enthusiastic reception. I don't know why I said that.”
The receipts
The legislation is the latest attempt to set a national standard for the rules of college sports on issues from eligibility to compensation.
Senate takes first step to advance legislation to drastically overhaul college sports system as we know it, passing a procedural vote for a full Senate vote, 74-24.
· Cruz faces rowdy crowd at College GameDay while promoting the Protect College Sports Act from the morgue, 12 Sep 2026
· Cruz met with jeers on ESPN's College Gameday during appearance advocating for Senate college sports bill from the morgue, 12 Sep 2026
· Interest groups spend $31 million lobbying Congress on Cruz, Cantwell college sports bill from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.