Power Four Conferences Face Capped Membership and Restructured Expansion Path
As the Protect College Sports Act inches closer to a potential Senate floor vote, key stakeholders are pushing for significant revisions that would reshape the college athletics landscape. Decision-makers and lawmakers are in intense negotiations to finalize the bill, which aims to provide college athletics with legal protections and uniform rules on Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL).
A proposed amendment would cap the number of teams in the Power Four conferences at 19 or 20, allowing for structured conference expansions. This change addresses the concerns of the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference (SEC), which had initially objected to the bill’s language. The SEC, in particular, had expressed reservations about the potential for a merger between the two conferences to form a super league, citing revenue thresholds of $700 million or more as a barrier to such mergers.
The new proposal would enable conferences to expand, but any Power Four program seeking to switch conferences would first need to spend at least five years as an independent. This waiting period is designed to slow change and limit the seismic shifts that have reshaped college football over the past decade.
Two notable exceptions to this rule would be Notre Dame and UConn, which could join a Power Four conference immediately due to their existing independent status. Under the current bill’s language, Notre Dame would have been blocked from joining a power conference.
The SEC’s Core Objections
The Southeastern Conference’s core objections to the bipartisan bill, drafted by Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell, run on three fronts. The first is the media-pooling provision in Title II, which would allow schools to voluntarily pool and jointly negotiate their media rights. The SEC and Big Ten, both locked into massive existing deals, argue that the language, as written, exposes them to lawsuits that could effectively force them into a pooling structure against their will.
The second objection is the private right of action provision, which allows athletes to sue schools over violations of NIL rights, health and safety standards, and scholarship protections. Both conferences have called the provision too broad, warning that it opens the door to a wave of litigation against member institutions.
The Protect College Sports Act passed the Senate Commerce Committee on a 19-9 bipartisan vote last month and has drawn support from 24 conferences, 267 colleges and universities, and the NFL. However, it has not received the backing of the two most powerful conferences in college sports, the Big Ten and SEC, who are pushing for revisions before it reaches the floor.
Whether the proposed changes are enough to bring them in remains the central question as the clock runs. Congress is scheduled to enter its summer recess in August, and legislation is expected to slow to a crawl as Washington gears up for midterm elections.
