College athletics is going through a difficult phase, and to counter that, Congress is trying to change things. Sen. Ted Cruz (R, Texas) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D, Wash.) have introduced the Protect College Sports Act, with former head coach Nick Saban revealing his program's spending numbers.

A few important college athletic figures were called to testify about these issues. Former Alabama coach Nick Saban was one of them. To show his solidarity with the Bill, Saban testified before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee last Wednesday, revealing crucial numbers.

“Let me give you the history," said Saban on June 3. "My first year, we had collective at Alabama, $2.7 million. Next year, $7 million. Next year, $10 million. I retired. Next year, $17 million. Next year, $24 million. Now you have schools that have close to $40 million rosters."

According to Sportico's College Finances Database, Alabama spent a record $113.8 million on its football program in the most recent reporting year, blowing past the previous high-water mark by more than $30 million.

Even compared to fellow College Football Playoff contenders, the Crimson Tide operated on another level, outspending Texas A&M ($90.8 million), Ohio State ($78.6 million), and Georgia ($68.9 million) by a considerable margin.

Saban knows the risks involved that the non-revenue sports might just get lost because of these levels of spending. Scholarships, too, would lose their distinct advantage. Without a spending cap, other sports could suffer.

Given the current scenario, a NIL cap would help in containing the situation.

Saban was also joined by Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua. Even he resonated with Saban's sentiment urging for a more"realistic cap."

The only thing standing in their way now is the Big Ten and the SEC conferences. Irrespective of those odds, Ted Cruz feels that the bill would eventually get passed.

Ted Cruz Confident About Bill's Passing

As Nick Saban and others testified in favor of the bipar­tisan bill, confidence is building among the Senators that the deal will be done.

"We’re going to get the votes.If we do noth­ing, there is no altern­at­ive. As every wit­ness test­i­fied, col­lege sports is facing a crisis," said Cruz

The new bill's goal is simple. It is simply aimed at over­haul­ing a col­lege sports sys­tem. With the new laws in place, players can freely earn mil­lions of dol­lars while mov­ing freely between schools.

The bill would also look to  reg­u­late pay­ments to ath­letes. Cruz even called this proposal a last-ditch effort to save college sports.

"If you had the biggest, bad­dest Fer­rari that you could ever have and it was going 150 miles an hour toward the Grand Canyon, some­body needs to tap the brakes. And I think that’s what we all need to do here," Saban had said in his opening statement of the testimony.

That was enough to gauge how the bill would choose to regulate matters. As of now, the future of the bill still looks uncertain.

As the two top-ranked law­makers (Cruz and Cantwell) on the Sen­ate Com­merce Com­mit­tee, sup­port the bill, the others are still hesitant.

That includes Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, and Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. While the former has doubts about the bill not doing anything about pro­tect­ing, bio­lo­gical women from com­pet­ing with men.

The latter advises that some changes need to be made before he addresses it.

After the meeting's completion, the Congressional Black Caucus sent a let­ter to Cruz and Can­t­well. It was done to urge the com­mit­tee to pause con­sid­er­a­tion of their bill as well.

Written by

Sourav Ganguly

Edited by

Aadesh Dhote