SBJ Unpacks: Latest college sports bill greets an industry in flux

Tonight in Unpacks: It didn’t take long for the Protect College Sports Act to make the rounds at this week’s SEC spring meetings, where ADs and other leaders wonder if the existing oversight system can hold, reports SBJ’s Ben Portnoy.

Also tonight:

• Dan Sullivan a driving force for Memorial Tournament
• MLBPA makes opening proposal in CBA talks
• Fanatics to offer official World Cup prediction markets in U.S.
• Op-ed: LIV Golf is not dead yet

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Abe Madkour checks in on college conference revenue numbers, the mixed-used development plans in Indy, player salaries in the PWHL and more.

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — Phones buzzed inside the Corral Ballroom of the Hilton Sandestin late Wednesday morning.

News had traveled fast.

U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released their long-awaited bipartisan bill, the Protect College Sports Act, just before noon ET in the latest and most significant step that leaders on Capitol Hill have taken to help college sports leaders take hold of an industry in flux.

As the Cantwell-Cruz bill made its way to administrators and reporters posted at the resort for the SEC’s annual spring meetings, league stakeholders were weighing a similarly vexing question behind closed doors: Can college sports’ enforcement system hold at all?

“Everything should be considered like the world changed,” said Texas A&M AD Trev Alberts. “This is not 1995. It’s a whole different world.”

The legislation released Wednesday amounted to a lengthy wish list for college sports leaders, ranging from agent compensation caps to the ability to pool media rights and a reassertion of enforcement power for the NCAA and College Sports Commission.

Among the finer points of the bill:

• Reinstitutes the one-time transfer policy while allowing wiggle room for athletes whose sports have been discontinued or head coach changes jobs;
• Creates a five-year athlete eligibility clock that also prohibits professionals from participating in college sports if they earned money beyond prize money as pros;
• Allows for the pooling of media rights should at least 75% of FBS schools agree to do so;
• Gives the NCAA and CSC grounds to create scrutiny around and prohibit third-party NIL deals.

“The issue is that the era of NIL and revenue sharing has let the boosters out of the box again,” Cantwell told Sports Business Journal on Wednesday. “... We thought it was important not only to put the rules in, but then to make sure that the NCAA enforce them. So, we’ll see how that goes, but we think an unlimited arms race and lacking of definitions was a really bad idea.”

The legislation arrives as the boundaries of college sports governance following the House settlement are being tested. SEC administrators have been locked in lengthy discussions about the future of the league and, perhaps, whether pressure points in the current system might force the SEC to look beyond the NCAA and CSC for oversight.

Those sentiments were shared during SEC AD meetings in Birmingham, Ala. earlier this month and again more publicly here this week in the Florida panhandle.

“I think every option is on the table right now and in our league, we’re always going to look at options that make us the leader,” said Oklahoma Athletic Director Roger Denny. “If we find an opportunity where from our platforms, we have a chance to drive change and drive positive change, we’re going to do that.”

“It’s really hard in a competitive space to have rules in one conference that don’t apply to your competition in other conferences,” surmised Tennessee AD Danny White. “I can’t wrap my head around how that would actually work.”

“We just need some clarity in how to govern ourselves,” Texas AD Chris Del Conte said.

The crux of the issues centers on schools’ allegedly pushing past the prescribed $20.5 million annual roster cap established by the House settlement. Football programs are anecdotally spending into the $30 million range, while men’s basketball rosters have ballooned past $20 million.

A pressure point is schools using third-party multimedia rights providers like Learfield and Playfly and other major players to create third-party NIL deals that are not subject to the cap.

The result has been a backlog of deals in NIL Go, the CSC’s clearinghouse, and growing concern among administrators that money promised to athletes may not be approved — or ultimately paid out.

Asked about those concerns following a lengthy discussion with SEC stakeholders Wednesday, CSC CEO Bryan Seeley cracked a grin and painted a brief picture.

The CSC, he said, was officially created at his bedroom office desk in Hoboken, New Jersey almost 11 months ago to the day while his 5-month-old baby slept in the room beside him. The organization has since grown to almost two-dozen staffers and recently secured office space outside Washington, D.C.

The point? That the organization is in its infancy and working through quirks.

“Some of the friction that’s happening in the NIL clearinghouse right now is deals are being submitted that don’t visibly comply with the rules,” Seeley said. “And when we ask questions to follow up on the deals, we don’t get the information we’re looking for. Some schools — and this is not an SEC problem, this is college sports-wide — don’t want to answer our questions if they think that the true answer will mean the deal’s not cleared. That is causing some of the delays in NIL Go.”

The legislation authored by Cantwell and Cruz faces a difficult path, beginning with a likely hearing next week before the Senate Commerce Committee. Congress also is headed for an August recess, leaving a narrow window before the November midterm elections could reshape the political landscape in the House.

Collective bargaining has become an increasingly popular talking point this week, even if not everyone loves the idea or views it as a near-term solution. Conference-level governance, too, has its host of issues. The NCAA has long been the central authority — and legal target — for those taking aim at the college sports enterprise, and it is unclear whether a conference office would want to shoulder that responsibility. Just as uncertain is whether rules adopted by the SEC would be followed by, say, the Big Ten — or whether they would simply create a competitive disadvantage.

“It’s always incredibly competitive in college sports, but in this era, when it’s open free agency every single offseason doing things to try to, you can have ideas that are coming from the right place ... but it’s too complex,” White said. “To [have one set of rules] in one conference, you’re just going to be setting yourself up with a pretty significant disadvantage.

“We’re so competitive that even the one little rule, we know how we are – ADs and coaches — other conferences are immediately going to pounce on, ‘Oh, well the SEC can’t do X, Y, or Z now, so let’s go get half the roster.’”

Just a week after the SCORE Act died in the House, Cantwell and Cruz’s new bill on the block offers a modicum of hope to college leaders. Can this alternative move quickly or broadly enough to stabilize college sports?

“Good ideas do travel fast in institutions like ours,” Cantwell said. “But we’ll have to see whether they respond to it that way and find out if it can move in that kind of manner.”

No one could blame Dan Sullivan at the time.

Sullivan, at the age of 12, had a tough job at the 1978 Memorial Tournament, where he and some of his grade-school buddies were enlisted to help manually update old-school scoreboards.

Sullivan was assigned the 8th hole at Muirfield Village Golf Club, and along came one of golf’s legends, Tom Weiskopf. But there was a problem: Weiskopf’s last name was tricky. It wasn’t an easy name like other legends of that era, such as Johnny Miller, and certainly not Jack Nicklaus, the tournament host.

Yes, Weiskopf was difficult to spell. Was it “i” before “e”? Or without the “p”? Sullivan can’t recall nearly 50 years later what he went with, but the current executive director of that same Memorial Tournament does remember how he found out about misspelling Weiskopf’s name.

“His wife came over and corrected me,” Sullivan said. “I was mortified.”

Forty-eight years later, there aren’t many 12-year-old volunteers at the Memorial, and mercifully, scoreboards are digital and update via the PGA Tour’s ShotLink system.

Next week is the 50th anniversary of the first Memorial Tournament, the Golden Bear’s hometown event in Ohio that has maintained its status among the top tournaments on the PGA Tour. Much of that success can be attributed to Sullivan, who’s been at nearly every edition and has been working at the event consecutively since 1991.

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Sullivan landed a marketing internship with the Memorial — and the Ryder Cup matches — in 1987 from John Hines, who at the time ran Muirfield Village as well as the event, and he sold radio advertising in Columbus for a few years. However, the Memorial was always calling. In 1991, he returned as its sales and marketing director, and in 2001, he became the tournament director.

Twenty-five years have flown by for Sullivan. The Memorial is now one of the tour’s eight Signature tournaments every season.

“We have our own identity, we have our own voice, we have our own brand and it seems to resonate with people,” Sullivan said. “We don’t take it for granted. We focus on making sure that we’re one of the most prominent events in professional golf. We take steps to make sure that that happens.”

Sullivan has made it a reality with the ever-present Nicklaus. Though the World Golf Hall of Famer has scaled back his responsibilities in recent years, Nicklaus is still keenly aware of all the happenings around Muirfield Village.

“He really appreciates and wants to understand the perspective of the player, ultimately, at all times; how the golf course is playing, what they experience, what they’re seeing out there,” Sullivan said. “He is a player, so he wants to see it from their eyes also on how we treat the players, how we treat the families, how we pay attention to all the details that were important to him and Barbara as they were playing and growing up.”

Nicklaus and Sullivan have remained a close team over the years.

“He’s smart, he understands, he listens, he’s not a bull in a china shop,” Nicklaus said of Sullivan. “He sits back and thoughtfully thinks about what to do and how to do it, and has been very, very good about tactically making the right decisions.”

Along with Sullivan becoming executive director, 2001 also marked the start of HNS Sports Group. Sullivan started HNS alongside Hines and Steve Nicklaus, the second-oldest child of Jack.

HNS began with a base around event and hospitality management, with the Memorial as its centerpiece. It’s grown to 70 full-time employees and manages or operates 22 professional events, as well as five college tournaments. Its pro events include the Memorial, the new Good Good Championship on the PGA Tour and the LPGA’s Chevron Championship.

Another one of its tournaments is the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a premier event on the PGA Tour. HNS handles operations, while Steve John and his Monterey Peninsula Foundation team manage things on-site.

“It’s been the greatest thing that’s ever happened to our event,” John said of HNS coming aboard for operations around a decade ago. “We don’t worry about anything operationally. We know the vendors are going to be in the right place, the right time. We have a very tight build time, and they adhere to that. They recognize that, they understand it, they embrace it. But it’s because of Dan and his team, the leadership that Dan provides to his team.”

HNS also has become increasingly involved in corporate sponsorships, negotiating recent deals for TIAA with PGA Tour player Jason Day and LPGA player Lilia Vu.

“What makes him good [is] he’s a very detailed guy,” Jack Nicklaus II said of Sullivan. “He knows everyone out there. I’ve watched him quite a bit. He’s got his hands into everything and he does it well. He’s a great leader.”

3 Questions With ... Dan Sullivan

What’s the biggest change in managing tournaments since you took over the Memorial in 2001?

“From my perspective, the primary change over time is tied to building more special events and entertainment options in and around golf tournaments. Although the competition remains a centerpiece, there is more emphasis and expectation in creating non-golf entertainment to appeal to a broader audience, which has assisted in growing the popularity of our product.”

What’s one leadership characteristic about Jack Nicklaus that stands out?

“To me, one of Jack’s leading qualities is his consistent mindset of naturally thinking of and supporting others. Over the years, I have been fortunate to witness his graciousness, his willingness to support and recognize other people. It is a great quality that any of us can adopt at any time.”

What’s your most memorable Memorial Tournament, and why?

“It’s hard to argue against last year, with the honoring of Barbara Nicklaus [as the Memorial Tournament honoree] and Scottie Scheffler winning his second in a row. So many people, including the whole Nicklaus family, came to recognize Barbara and all that she has contributed to the PGA Tour, as well as the incredible charity work she has led in support of child healthcare. Then, Scottie backs up his 2024 win with a win in 2025, in front of a massive Sunday crowd. It made for an incredible week.”

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The MLB Players’ Association made its initial proposal in CBA talks Wednesday, stating that it would result in increased revenue sharing that would guarantee every small-market team with a minimum of $240M in revenue annually.

Other key components of the proposal included a minimum salary of $1.5M starting in 2027, the elimination of the qualifying offer, free agency for players with five or more years of service time who have reached age-30, and an increase in luxury tax thresholds (to $300M from $244M).

The union says the $240M in minimum revenue sharing would come with stipulations that those funds be utilized to improve on-field performance, with those teams having payrolls of at least $150M. As a result, the union says “clubs will be able to keep more of the stadium-related revenues they generate; tens of millions in extra revenue sharing will go to low-revenue clubs that qualify for the playoffs or have a winning record; significantly increased sharing of local media revenues from high to low revenue teams.”

Additionally, there would be “penalties for clubs that neglect to spend revenue sharing payments on team payroll.”

A labor battle between the league and union is expected, with owners expected to introduce a salary cap and floor system, which the union has been vehemently against for decades. The CBA expires Dec. 1.

Interim Exec Dir Bruce Meyer has insisted that economic reform can be achieved without a cap. The union believes owners want a cap, not primarily as a competitive balance mechanism, but rather to ensure fixed costs and increased franchise values.

USA Today, using MLB data, reported that the Mets had an MLB-high Opening Day 40-man roster payroll of nearly $358M, more than five times that of the Guardians ($70M). The two-time defending champion Dodgers were north of $322M.

“We’ve been willing to work with the league in at least one respect recently, when we agreed to allow them some flexibility over the luxury tax proceeds,” Meyer told SBJ in March. “And I think in bargaining, we’re going to make some proposals that involve revenue sharing; some of those proposals are going to help some of the teams that are being challenged. They already get tremendous financial support from traditional revenue sharing and luxury tax proceeds and other sources, but we’re going to have proposals that sort of address all those areas.”

The league, which is slated to counter Thursday, responded via statement.

“We appreciate the union making a set of proposals and we look forward to continuing the bargaining process and working towards solving the competitive balance problem our fans are telling us needs to be addressed,” MLB spokesperson Glen Caplin said. “We understand their proposals are designed to benefit players. Unfortunately, they do not address and in fact exacerbate the competitive balance problem our fans are telling us we must address. The MLBPA’s proposal would reduce the amount transferred to lower-revenue clubs, weaken the competitive balance tax, and lead to even more payroll disparity than exists today. For example, under the union’s proposal, the Dodgers would pay less in luxury tax payments, giving them an additional $70 million to spend on payroll.”

Fanatics Markets has landed U.S. rights to offer the official prediction markets of the World Cup, combining with global FIFA rights-holder ADI PredictStreet on a co-branded digital hub that will include tournament news, stats and other in-app content.

Owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family, ADI PredictStreet signed on as FIFA’s official prediction market platform in April but was unable to offer its recently launched exchange in the U.S., where event contracts are regulated federally by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Fanatics Markets trades on Crypto.com’s CFTC-regulated exchange.

Fanatics offers the popular sports betting workaround in states that have not legalized online sports betting, including California, Texas and Georgia, as well as in Florida, where Hard Rock Bet operates exclusively.

It was named the the World Cup’s official in-stadium retail licensee in December.

“You have a global partner of FIFA who, in a very quickly evolving and dynamic space that is prediction markets, was in a position where they did need a U.S. partner to deliver the best experience for sports fans in the U.S.,” said Matt King, CEO of Fanatics’ sports betting subsidiary. “We … can move very quickly and always want to be in a position where we’re delivering great experiences for sports fans. And we’re big believers in working with officially licensed partners. So for us it was a natural fit.”

The deal also gives Fanatics rights to use World Cup logos and images in its advertising and on social media, where it figures to do most of its promotion. It does not expect to run spots during game broadcasts or shoulder programming, King said.

“What we’re going to witness this summer all the way through football season is an advertising avalanche like we have not seen in a very long time,” King said. “We’re in this for the long game. You’re not going to see us trying to go toe-to-toe with people that are going to spend what we would think are uneconomic dollars on advertising.”

DraftKings has said it expects to spend $200M to $300M promoting its predictions offering this year, with its first push beginning with the World Cup.

One weekend this month, Centreville Bank Stadium in Rhode Island took center stage to make history with the Women’s Lacrosse League kicking off its first season of full-field play.

A week later, the soccer stadium on the banks of the Seekonk River welcomed Boston Legacy FC for the first in a seven-game stint in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

The back-to-back women’s sports weekends represent an intentional strategy for the year-old venue, one that is creating space for women’s games and events while serving as home to the USL’s Rhode Island FC. Stadium management built it that way from the start, welcoming Women’s Elite Rugby in last May the day after the stadium opened.

“We’ve established ourselves as the place to be,” Paul Byrne, general manager of Centreville Bank Stadium, told me. “We still have some work to do, but we also established ourselves as a stadium that can host really big events.”

The venue’s early run offers a lesson to the market — those big events are women’s sports events.

Boston Legacy FC kicked off its run of games in front of 9,141 fans Saturday.

“One of the things that fans love about football soccer is the intimacy and the intensity of the experience, and you can get that at Centerville Bank Stadium,” Legacy CRO Amina Bulman told me last week.

Paul Rabil, co-founder and president of the WLL and Premier Lacrosse League, said they drew about 7,000 in attendance for five total games (four men’s and one women’s) there earlier this month, with the bulk of that during the women’s game May 16.

It served as a launch point of sorts for the league, which began play with a championship series last year in the sixes format that will be included in LA28. The WLL’s kickoff at Centreville Bank Stadium serves as the first in a 10-city tour this season.

“Rhode Island’s new venue ownership group was very cooperative and very excited about the future of the PLL and the WLL,” Rabil told me.

New England teamwork

While the nation’s smallest state doesn’t have a pro women’s sports team, Rabil said youth clubs in Massachusetts pushed for Rhode Island’s inclusion as a tour stop.

“This was a great opportunity for us to learn about the other side of New England,” he said.

That regional appeal certainly helped Legacy FC, which will play at Centreville Bank Stadium while the FIFA Men’s World Cup takes over its temporary home in Gillette Stadium.

Bulman said having a purpose-built soccer stadium that’s accessible via public transit in Boston made it an obvious fit for the club.

“In many ways, Centerville Bank Stadium is a much closer model for White Stadium, which will be our forever home,” she said.

Gillette Stadium has filled in as the team works with the city on Boston’s White Stadium, which is being renovated as part of a public-private partnership. While the NWSL expansion team set a then-record for an inaugural home opener with 30,207 at Gillette (one that would be quickly surpassed by the Denver Summit’s record 63,004 crowd), Centreville Bank Stadium is a better fit than a cavernous football venue.

Capable of holding 10,500 fans, Centreville Bank is close to what the Legacy will have with White Stadium’s planned 11,000 capacity.

Bulman said stadium leadership has been flexible to accommodate fan and sponsor activations and are working with the Legacy to work on joint social promotion and ticket packages with Rhode Island FC.

“Seeing us be back-to-back right after the WLL, it is very cool to me that they are extending that to women’s teams in particular,” she said. “You notice that as a tenant when a partner wants to go above and beyond, and it creates a good experience for you and your fans.”

That experience is one Byrne and the stadium leadership would love to see include a women’s pro team, and they’d like to work with an investor to bring in one from the Gainbridge Super League.

Until that happens, they’re very happy to continue their strategy of courting women’s sports teams.

“We’ve really hit a niche sweet spot for up-and-coming leagues,” Byrne said. “It is a unique subset that I do feel we’re a template now for future building throughout the country.”

The word in the headlines is bankruptcy, and a lot of sports fans will read that as a death notice. It is not. Yet. After two decades restructuring distressed companies, I read the LIV news differently than most. The last few weeks rattled the league, but do not toss your Crushers shirt just yet. Talk of a filing is an opening move in a fight to survive, and a filing only happens if the money does not come together first.

Start with what broke, because much of the coverage missed it. LIV did not fail on fans or appeal. Its Achilles’ heel was a structure that real revenue could not carry. The league reportedly secured around $500 million in partnership and media commitments against an annual burn reported well north of a billion. Most of that gap traces to the guaranteed player contracts signed to launch the league, deals that made sense as a one-time cost of buying a field and make no sense as a permanent expense. When Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund said it would stop funding after this season, the music stopped. Popularity was not the issue. Math was.

Here is where my world and the everyday world talk past each other. To a fan, Chapter 11 sounds like the end. To a restructuring professional, it is a tool, often the only one that keeps a business with a good product and a broken balance sheet alive. Reports that LIV may move its headquarters to the United States signal competence more than panic. U.S. restructuring law lets a company renegotiate obligations it can no longer carry, reset its costs, and protect the operating business while it does the work. Above all, it is a time out, a stretch where the company can think without creditors at the door.

So, what comes next? The 2026 season very likely proceeds, minus an event or two. The base case right now is the raise, with bankruptcy as the prepared fallback if it falls short. Either path has the same goal: finance or sell the league. With a filing, the league gets more appealing to buyers and lenders, as it would overhaul those original contracts. Guaranteed deals get renegotiated into something an emerging business can afford, with more pay tied to performance and less owed down the road. The balancing test is whether the brand can survive the bankruptcy stigma.

The other prize is the teams. LIV’s franchises are not just logos. Each has its own brand, roster, and ownership, with captains holding 25% and the league 75%. In a restructuring, those teams are the assets with the clearest stand-alone value, and how they are treated will tell you more about LIV’s future than any headline about the parent.

The clearest reason for hope is who LIV put in charge. The new independent board is led by Gene Davis and Jon Zinman, unfamiliar names to most readers. Davis has spent decades steering companies through exactly this kind of complexity. Zinman pairs post-reorganization investing with a background as a restructuring lawyer. You do not hire people like this to run a funeral. You hire them to find capital, reset the structure, and protect value.

LIV has also reportedly hired Ducera Partners to run the raise and AlixPartners on the restructuring, and the new board reviewed the plan before taking it to market. The current target, per reporting, is up to $250 million for a profitable version, with a smaller figure in play if media and team sales come together. The raise has dual purpose: work on its own, or provide a map for whoever ends up taking over. So do not be surprised by a sale or merger in the next 30 to 90 days. Those discussions have certainly been happening for months.

A few things I’ll be watching if they do file: First, the venue. If the move to the U.S. becomes formal, look for a filing in Delaware or the Southern District of New York, the courts built for big, complex cases. Then watch the first-day filings — the petition and everything filed alongside it. An early tell is the amount of information filed on Day 1. A company that files several pleadings, with the hard issues already negotiated with creditors like vendors and, yes, players, is well organized, and we can expect a shorter process — perhaps even a concurrent sale announcement.

Few saw this coming a few months ago. The sports world and the restructuring world will watch to see whether LIV becomes a turnaround story or a trivia answer. For golf fans, I would say they are down three strokes with three to play. They have a shot. It is going to take some work and a little luck.

T. Barrett Wood is managing director of Rezerve Group, where advisers take operating roles in middle-market companies working through distress and special situations.

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