The 2024 elections have come and gone, and Republicans won a trifecta -- controlling interest of the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. This will give the GOP latitude to enact its agenda across the federal government, and reforming college athletics will be part of that agenda.
In winning control of the Senate, Republicans will control the Commerce Committee, which will now be chaired by Texas's Ted Cruz, who won re-election over former Baylor and NFL linebacker Collin Allred.
Cruz stated before the elections that putting so-called "guardrails" around the NIL space within college football will be a priority for him and, in a recent episode of his podcast Verdict with co-host Ben Ferguson, he confirmed that will remain the case once the 119th Congress is seated on Jan. 3.
The major conferences have asked Congress to write laws that would enshrine that college athletes are not employees, to codify the House settlement that will see schools share north of $20 million directly with athletes, and to grant the NCAA and its conferences anti-trust exemptions. All of those are far more likelier to happen with Republicans in control of Congress than Democrats.
Yahoo's Ross Dellenger summarized the split this way:
Republicans want to limit employment status and give protection to the NCAA and power leagues to grant them oversight and regulation; Democrats emphasize more rights of athletes, express an openness (some of them) to employee protections as well as health, educational access and gender equity rights.
That said, a GOP trifecta doesn't guarantee that College Sports, Inc., will get its way. Our political system is designed to engineer gridlock, and Republicans will enjoy a very slim majority in the House. But the conditions are there to outline a future that college sports leaders have been asking for ever since NIL rules came online in 2021.
And all of a sudden, the most powerful person in college athletics might just be Ted Cruz.