In December, the University of Utah became the first school to strike a PE deal. Six months later, the Athletic Department has started laying people off. That’s what happens when Wall Street moves in. 

In college sports, there are no franchises or superstars who need to keep winning. In college sports there’s just – pardon the cliché – the love of the game, even if that motivation is no longer pure. Athletes have won some recent victories with the legalization of name, image, and likeness deals (NIL) – so that they can benefit from their own talent.  

But rather than leave well-enough alone, some members of Congress have decided that college sports should be polluted with corporate greed. The oh-so-hateable institution of Private Equity (PE) firms have looked at college sports as a cash cow waiting to be slaughtered. PE firms raise that capital from pension funds, university endowments, and sovereign wealth funds, meaning the money fueling this takeover often comes from the very institutions and workers it will harm, courtesy of the College Sports Act itself. And some politicians in Washington want to hand them the bolt pistol. 

But dig into what’s being proposed, and it’s clear this is a federally engineered cash grab, with PE firms positioned to extract fees, revenue shares, and equity stakes from universities and athletes who will see little of that money. 

This isn’t the first time PE has ventured into plundering college sports, but this bill would give them the weight of law to do it across the board. Whatever PE touches it ruins, whether it’s healthcare, retail sales, local journalism, and the American dream itself. 

For this to come from Cruz and Cantwell is galling. Cantwell fancies herself a champion of the oppressed masses and Cruz has long positioned himself as a libertarian who just wants Washington to get out of the way. Indeed, in the hearing to introduce this bill, Cruz said, “As a lawmaker, I did not come looking to insert Congress into college sports.” And just last year, Cantwell wrote a letter warning college sports programs that they’d lose tax breaks if they struck a deal with PE.  

There was already a better path forward. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) championed the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements (SCORE) Act, a House bill that would have addressed the real consensus concerns: restoring order to the transfer portal, protecting women’s and Olympic sports, and creating a national NIL framework, all without handing PE firms a federally sanctioned money grab. That bill had broad support until Democratic leadership killed it on procedural grounds. Rather than build on that foundation, Cruz and Cantwell went around the House entirely with a Senate bill written by billionaires. 

But the two are the chair and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, so that gets attention from corporate donors. According to Yahoo! Sports, the bill was drafted by billionaire Cody Campbell, Yankees President Randy Levine, and Gerry Cardinale, the founder of RedBird Capital – the second-biggest shareholder of Paramount, which owns CBS and TNT Sports.  

In business speak, this is called “vertical integration.” But a better word is “corruption.”  

Campbell recently released a letter of support for the Protect College Sports Act, which a variety of university leaders had signed.  But shortly after its release, supposed signatories from Louisiana State University came forward to say they had never agreed to be listed on the letter and did not support the bill. Even with the fake signatures, one group was notably left off: college athletes. 

Athlete advocacy organizations like Athletes.org have rejected the bill, arguing it “restricts college athletes’ freedom, mobility and ability to earn their true market value.”  

The bill does include one very positive measure. It prohibits schools from revoking scholarships from athletes who get injured playing. While this issue has garnered some attention in recent years, it is still an ongoing problem. But that doesn’t make the rest of the bill acceptable.  

While Cantwell has lost her way, a fellow member of the Washington delegation hasn’t. Rep. Baumgartner (R) introduced separate legislation specifically to stop private equity and hedge funds from carving up college sports. Let’s hope his bill is the one that makes it into the end zone.  

If this nightmare of a bill becomes law, Congress would create a tailor-made structure for investors to rob universities, athletes, and non�’revenue programs. PE destroys everything it touches. The “Protect College Sports” Act needs to be sent to the penalty box.  

Jared Whitley is a longtime DC politico, having worked in the US Senate and White House. A graduate of the University of Utah and Hult business school, he was recently honored as one of the best columnists in the state by the Society of Professional Journalists.