The Big Ten has drawn a line in the sand on NIL spending, and it’s a big one: $49 million per school, effective immediately.
On Wednesday, the conference announced a policy that lines up with the framework of the Protect College Sports Act, the bill still waiting for a vote in the House of Representatives. The Big Ten’s move gives its schools a financial roadmap even as the legislation itself remains in limbo.
The cap is broken into two pieces. One is the revenue-sharing number from the House settlement, set at $21.6 million. The other is a $27.5 million limit on third-party NIL spending, including collectives.
“While we await the passage of the Protect College Sports Act, which has our full support, it is imperative our member institutions can begin to plan, budget and build their rosters approximating the act's economic structure,” the Big Ten council of chancellors said in a statement. “Our institutions remain in full support of the Protect College Sports Act and this rule not only allows for a much smoother transition into the policies put in place by the act once it passes, but demonstrates our commitment to it.”
The proposed federal bill would take the total athlete-payment framework to roughly $50 million, though it would do so with added guardrails. The House settlement portion would stay in place, but schools could also tap a retention fund worth up to $22.5 million to keep players from leaving and ease the pressure of the transfer portal. Another $5 million would be set aside specifically for women’s and Olympic sports.
With the Protect College Sports Act still uncertain, the Big Ten is giving its schools something concrete for planning purposes, especially when it comes to building budgets for 2027 and beyond.
That number also lands in a notable spot relative to what’s already being spent. According to CBS Sports, Oregon and Ohio State are already pouring more than $40 million into football alone this year. Michigan and USC are not far behind, sitting near that same $40 million mark.
The bill’s path in Washington remains shaky. The House of Representatives is on recess through the midterm elections on Tuesday, and will return several days later on Nov. 9.
Once lawmakers are back, the PCSA could come up for a vote, but the timing is far from clean. A lame-duck session brings uncertainty, and the true hard stop is Jan. 3, when the new Congress is sworn in. If the bill hasn’t become law by then, it dies and would have to start over.
“I’m not sure what the fight is going to be like in lame duck as they try to push this over the edge, especially if the House switches from Republican to Democrat,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who opposes the bill, told CBS Sports. “Democrats should have a chance to really author a bill that corrects for a lot of the failings in this bill.”
There’s also resistance to the bill from lawmakers who want changes before it moves forward. Some Republicans are pushing to prohibit athletes from being classified as employees, while others want a strict limit on the number of international athletes in college sports.
Any late edits would send the bill back to the Senate for another vote, which would make an already difficult path even steeper.
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