will put NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson on the 6 p.m. ET edition of SportsCenter on Tuesday, giving one of the bill’s sharpest critics a national platform just as the Senate moves toward a vote on the Protect College Sports Act.
The appearance follows backlash over allowing Ted Cruz to use College GameDay on Saturday to promote the bill before the LSU-Ole Miss game. was also discussing a Saturday appearance on College GameDay before that conversation shifted to Tuesday’s SportsCenter, where the network wants the exchange to happen before the bill reaches the Senate floor.
That timing matters because the Protect College Sports Act is not a routine sports policy bill. It would give the NCAA a limited antitrust exemption to set new rules on athlete eligibility, transfers and player compensation, while also limiting conference realignment and any future super league. It would also place a hard cap on revenue sharing, barring schools from paying athletes more than $48.5 million combined per year.
Chris Murphy framed the measure as a giveaway to the people already profiting from the system, saying it protects “the billions of dollars that coaches and sports industry executives are making over the suppression of compensation for some of the most highly valued athletes in the world.” Johnson has gone further, arguing that the bill uses HBCU language as cover for a deal that still leaves black athletes with less leverage.
The 171-page bill includes a section titled HBCU SPORTS MEDIA AND CONNECTIVITY PROGRAM, which would award grants to improve broadband, technology and media infrastructure. Colorado coach Deion Sanders has been touting the program in a TV ad for PCSA, and supporters cast it as proof that the bill reaches beyond compensation rules. But Johnson said, “What makes this bill so inadequate and in many ways offensive is the overture as if it’s going to do something special for Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” adding that those schools “deserve direct federal investment, not a political trade-off that shields powerful college sports institutions, while asking black athletes to surrender rights, leverage, and a voice in the billion-dollar industry.”
That clash is what is stepping into. After Cruz’s appearance drew criticism, the network is now giving airtime to both the bill’s co-author and one of its most visible opponents, a balancing act that says as much about the fight over college sports as it does about the broadcast itself.
Senators originally tried to bring the bill to a vote in early August before Congress left for summer recess, but 11th-hour opposition, including from the Congressional Black Caucus, slowed the push. Cruz said Monday that “In the next 10 days, the Senate is voting on the Protect College Sports Act,” which means Johnson’s appearance on Tuesday is set to land while the vote window is still open and the argument over NIL, athlete pay and NCAA power is still being fought in public.
If the Senate does vote in the next 10 days, Tuesday’s SportsCenter slot will not just be a response to a backlash cycle. It will be part of the final scramble over whether the bill advances with its cap, its antitrust shield and its HBCU provisions intact.
