A sweeping college sports overhaul bill clears early hurdle in Senate vote

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill that proposes to fix some of the biggest problems in college sports — spiraling spending, constant lawsuits and a transfer portal run amok — cleared a major hurdle Tuesday when the Senate voted 74-24 to halt debate and move the measure one step closer to a final up-or-down vote.

The Protect College Sports Act, a bill co-sponsor Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called “a bipartisan solution designed to bring order to the chaos” easily cleared the 60-vote threshold it needed to stop the filibuster.

Co-sponsor Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said the lopsided nature of the vote left her “cautiously optimistic” it could get through the House, which has failed repeatedly in passing a different version of a college sports bill.

There remains, however, a persistent block of opposition.

“What this bill does at its core is to protect a system of exploitation,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.

Notably, all four Black Democrats in the Senate — Cory Booker, Raphael Warnock, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Angela Alsobrooks — voted against the bill that is strongly opposed by the NAACP.

The vote came a week after college football's most recent crisis — a scheduled meeting of school presidents in the Southeastern Conference to expel LSU over its now-canceled plans to place players on the roster who had participated in NFL training camps.

Calmer heads prevailed. The eligibility lawsuit that triggered the mess is the sort of litigation the bill would outlaw.

“That was probably like a big lamp for some people who saw it and said, ‘Oh my God, this is so out of control,’" Cantwell said in an interview with The Associated Press. “You can see how out-of-hand the situation was getting.”

Cantwell and Cruz introduced the bill in late May and it nearly died without the support of the Southeastern and Big Ten conferences. Compromises helped get them on board, then it became a matter of getting the bill onto the floor of the busy upper chamber.

At around the time the vote took place, Cantwell released a report that outlined a “spending spiral” that has taken hold of college sports since name-image-likeness payments began.

Among its findings: There was a $519.9 million increase in institutional and government support of athletic programs between 2015 and 2025 among the 53 schools in the Power Four whose data was publicly available. The bill promises to harness that in a number of ways, including:

— Placing into law the 22% cap (around $21.5 million this year) on revenue colleges are allowed to share with their players — an amount agreed to in the House settlement that defined the rules over paying players. It would add a $27.5 million “retention pool” for schools to keep current players in a move that could bring some of the hard-to-regulate third-party NIL deals back in-house.

— Giving conferences the option of pooling their TV media rights, a move proponents say could raise between $4 billion and $8 billion in additional revenue. The SEC and Big Ten disagree and say they would not participate.

— Restricting players to one “free” transfer where they wouldn't have to sit out a year, which could limit bidding wars that take place year-round in the transfer portal.

— Placing into law the NCAA's new rule that allows players five years of eligibility, but no more.

Critics say the NCAA, which has struggled to police its business for the last 100 years, shouldn't be getting more power.

“Over and over again, courts have determined that colleges and the NCAA and conferences are violating the law,” Murphy said.

The bill, however, has gained support from a long list of sports leaders, including retired football coach Nick Saban and Deion Sanders of Colorado, and basketball coaches John Calipari of Arkansas and Mark Few of Gonzaga.

“I think this clears up about 75-80% of our issues,” Calipari said at a news conference in Washington on Monday, the eve of the vote. “Nothing is perfect. This is a bite out of the apple.”

Though the bill passed on a bipartisan measure, some lawmakers view it as their best chance to do something with the uncertainty of the upcoming election looming. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber. Democrats are trying to flip the Senate in November’s midterms, which can complicate the legislative agenda.

“We’re going to get one shot at this, and I don’t know if we ever will again soon,” said another co-sponsor, Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., just ahead of the vote. “We’ve got a moment.”

The bill, he said, could “define the trajectory of college athletics.”

Pells reported from Denver.

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., left, speaks as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, right, listens during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., second from right, listens during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is planning to deliver powerful 2,000-pound bombs to Israel as part of an upcoming arms deal, weapons that prompted such concerns about the possibility of mass casualties in Gaza that the Biden administration paused their delivery two years ago.

The $2.8 billion package includes 40,000 of the bombs, made up of 20,000 Mk84s and 20,000 BLU-117s, according to two U.S. officials and a person familiar with the plan who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss the package, which is not yet final.

Congress has been informally notified about the pending deal, most of which is to be paid for with foreign military financing — in which U.S. taxpayer dollars are given to Israel to turn around and buy the weapons from the United States.

The proposed sale is just the latest in a series of Trump administration steps to improve Israeli’s military capacity. The conflict in Gaza has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and has decimated the enclave. The U.S. brokered a fragile ceasefire, but violence has continued.

The package, which was reported earlier by The Washington Post, comes as Israel has faced increasing international isolation over its war in Gaza in response to the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas.

The sale signals that some strains in the relationship between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, especially since the two countries launched the war against Iran in February, are not impeding the closeness of the U.S.-Israeli alliance. Trump has had a hot-and-cold history with Netanyahu over the years and expressed some frustration with Netanyahu tied to the Iran conflict before their latest meeting in July at the White House.

In 2024, the Biden administration held off on one shipment of the bombs, but Trump lifted that hold when he took office again.

Last year, the Trump administration bypassed a normal congressional review process and approved a nearly $3 billion sale to Israel that included more than 35,500 of the bombs. The administration then approved a new series of arms sales to Israel totaling $6.67 billion in January.

The 2,000-pound bombs have multiple variants, with some designed to penetrate deep, underground targets while others detonate above ground and cause widespread damage.

Though the Israeli military has offered few details about what bombs and artillery it has used in Gaza, experts analyzing strike footage and blast fragments found on-site believe the U.S.-made bombs have been used there, targeting a tunnel network used by Hamas but also killing of people in densely populated areas.

While the heaviest fighting in Gaza has subsided since the fragile ceasefire took hold in October, Israel has continued to carry out strikes in the territory, including some overnight and into Tuesday that killed several people. That is even after Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a key Mideast negotiator, met with Netanyahu last month in an effort to push the ceasefire deal forward and asked Israel to reduce its attacks.

Militants have carried out shooting attacks on Israeli troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to those and other ceasefire violations.

The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in 2023 killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s offensive in Gaza to retaliate has killed more than 73,264 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.

An explosion erupts following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians carry the body of Ahmad Al-Batsh, a Qassam Brigades commander in Jabaliya, the military wing of Hamas, during his funeral after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Yousef Al Zanoun)