Washington Huskies Head Coach in Favor of Protect College Sports Act

SEATTLE — The Washington Huskies football and men's basketball team are both being plagued with similar problems this season.

The football team and men's basketball team are both at or near the bottom of the Big Tne and Power Four programs as a whole in spending when it comes to their respective rosters.

This has forced the football team to play a significant amount of first- and second-year players this season, many of whom are in starting roles.

The men's basketball team has had to rely on its international pipeline as well as older players to fill out the remaining spots on its roster this season, with few exceptions, such as second-year guard and Rutgers transfer Harun Zrno.

There's currently a law in the process of being passed through the legislative branch of the U.S. government that could make the financial gap smaller between the Huskies and the rest of their Big Ten and college sports contemporaries.

The Protect College Sports Act recently passed the Senate with a bipartisan 77-22 approval and will soon head to the House of Representatives for a vote.

The potential law is meant to limit the growing industry of Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) deals in college sports, and will include a $49 million pool cap for each university total, including a designated $5 million allocation to women's and Olympic sports. The new rule also limits transfers to one without losing eligibility, with every additional one costing a year of eligibility. The law will also coincide with the NCAA's new "5-for-5" eligibility rules, which does away with redshirts and medical waivers while allowing players five flat years of playing time.

It's uncertain if the law will pass the House, but, in preparation of the law potentially passing the Big Ten recently passed conference-wide rules under unanimous approval from the conference's 18 university presidents. The new mandate falls in line with the PCSA, increasing the money that can be allocated to athletes to $27.5 million via third-party NIL deals. There's currently no limit on how much a third-party NIL deal can pay a player.

There could be some legal issues for the deal, as the Big Ten may have little actual authority to limit what outside companies not directly associated with a university can pay the players without the legal framework of the PCSA in place.

However, UW's head football coach believes the Big Ten's new mandate, and the potential passing of the PCSA, are both steps in the right direction.

"I think it's awesome when you have all 18 (Big Ten) presidents vote a certain way," UW football coach Jedd Fisch said in a weekly news conference held via Zoom on Thursday. "That means the entire conference is on board. ... I think some teams might be affected differently — teams spending over $49 million this year alone just in football. But they're gonna have to bring those numbers down. I think it can also encourage or entice programs to bring their numbers up. And I think it's a really cool start. ... We need the PCSA to pass. We need that to happen. Not just as in Washington, but 'we' as in fans of college football and college athletics. I'm really hopeful. I was really excited to see that that happened."