The SEC & Big 10 are on the clock, according to...

[TTown]

If this ever passes, best believe everybody will want Jersey patches etc. 48.8 million cap.

https://x.com/RossDellenger/status/2082474624021843976?s=20

[Paul Jespersen]

So, @Bobby Burton did the clock run out? 🙏

🤘

[Steamboat Willie]

The biggest development today is what didn't happen. The SEC and Big Ten had a 9 a.m. deadline to give Congress their position on the revised bill, and they let it come and go, scheduling more calls with their presidents instead. That tells me they're still negotiating, not endorsing. And look how far the bill has already moved toward them. Media-rights pooling is now explicitly voluntary, with language barring lawsuits against conferences that stay out. The expansion limit goes to 19 members. There's a $20 million retention pool on top of the $21.3 million revenue-sharing cap, plus another $5 million restricted to women's sports, putting the total around $46 million. They're reportedly still pushing to get that full $25 million unrestricted, along with tighter recruiting language and killing the nine-year sunset on the cap. A month ago the question was whether the SEC and Big Ten would accept Congress's bill. Now Congress is writing a bill for them to accept, and they're still not saying yes. Whether they finally sign off probably determines if this reaches the Senate floor before Aug. 7 or slips into the fall.

[Steamboat Willie]

One more thought, it appears the media rights fight is basically over, and the SEC and Big Ten won it. Pooling is voluntary now, and there's language saying nobody can sue them for sitting it out.

What's actually holding things up is enforcement. They're not signing off on a bigger cap unless the associated-entity loophole is really closed, and I don't blame them. Otherwise the number means nothing and their own schools just keep escalating right past it. They also want the nine-year sunset gone, better antitrust protection so this doesn't just end up back in court anyway, and some assurance that a $22.5M retention pool stacked on a court-approved settlement cap actually holds up legally. That last one is Petitti's own point, and it's a fair one. He wants to read the language before he commits to it.

None of that strikes me as unreasonable. But none of it is small either, and every one of those asks buys them more time. If they think they can do better next offseason, there's no cost to just waiting this out.