For the Syracuse Orange and its peers around the country, the transformation of collegiate athletics continues onward, with schools expected to be able to directly pay players in the upcoming 2025-26 season.
But things could change even more drastically if a federal bill introduced this week in the U.S. House of Representatives is ever enacted. According to media reports and comments from industry experts, this bill, called the "Restore College Sports Act," would replace the NCAA with an entity known as the American Collegiate Sports Association ("ACSA").
Per an article from On3's Nick Schultz, "the ACSA would have a commissioner appointed by the President with advice and consent of the Senate. The commissioner would serve four-year terms."
This bill would also require name, image and likeness funds from schools themselves and third-party collectives to be equally distributed to athletes at ACSA member institutions. That's a huge thing, because assuming schools can start directly paying players in 2025-26, a large majority of those funds are likely to be weighed toward football along with men's and women's basketball.
Schultz notes that "broadcast revenue would also need to be distributed equally," another potentially massive component. In recent years, amid ongoing conference realignment, the issue of how to distribute revenue from media rights deals has proven front and center, especially in Syracuse's league, the Atlantic Coast Conference.
For the Syracuse Orange, could a return to the Big East be in store (wink, wink)?
Under this proposed federal bill, college athletes would have the right to transfer "freely." The transfer portal, from my perspective, is already out of control, and this could open the floodgates up, so to speak, even more.
A new federal college athletics bill was introduced.
— Mit Winter (@WinterSportsLaw) April 8, 2025
It would:
1. Create a new association to replace the NCAA, known as the American Collegiate Sports Association.
2. Require all NIL $ from schools & collectives to be distributed equally to athletes at ASCA schools.
🧵 pic.twitter.com/zeZ1AN5WrK
Now this part of the bill intrigues me. It would require conferences to be comprised of schools in the same time zone. I'm all for that. I mean no disrespect here, but California, SMU and Stanford shouldn't be in the ACC.
Heck, I don't want my alma mater in the ACC. Let's get the Syracuse Orange back to the Big East, although such a move would have to consider the football program, since college football is the biggest revenue generator in collegiate athletics (and it's not even close).
Something else to mention here. The bill discusses the salaries of coaches. According to Schultz, a coach's maximum annual salary would be capped at "10 times the full cost of attendance at such institution."
It's not entirely clear to me what such a figure would entail, although I'm sure some stakeholders would be fine with coaches potentially having their annual salaries capped.
Stay tuned for more on this. College sports, frankly, are a crazy business these days.