bill would – U.S. senators Maria Cantwell and Ted Cruz are advancing a federal proposal that would cap how much universities can spend on athlete compensation, while pointing to recent NCAA tennis program cuts. Cantwell cited examples including Arkansas and Saint Louis. Th
For months, Congress has been wrestling with the future of college sports—who gets paid, how much, and under what rules. Now, that argument is being carried to an unexpected corner of the NCAA: men’s and women’s tennis teams that have been cut.
At the center of the dispute are U.S. senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas). They co-wrote a bill that would enforce a cap on how much universities could spend on athlete compensation—aimed at regulating college athletes’ pay in a way that. under their proposal. would limit earning potential for thousands of American college athletes. The bill’s structure would be different from professional leagues, where salary caps are established through collective bargaining.
Cantwell, during a hearing on the bill, framed the issue as one of protecting women’s sports and Olympic programs from a pay-for-play system. She said, “We cannot have a pay-for-play system and then continue to cut this many women and Olympic athletes in various programs.”
Her argument referenced cuts at Arkansas and Saint Louis. Arkansas reversed course at the 11th hour after a fundraising surge and maintained its tennis programs, while Saint Louis dropped the axe. The Saint Louis cut also marked the first time it had cut a sports program in two decades.
But as Cantwell argued for curbing athlete compensation. questions have been raised about what. exactly. is being protected—and for whom. Cantwell pointed to the tennis programs being cut. while critics focused on the composition of those rosters. which in several cases include large numbers of international athletes.
In the run-up to Saint Louis’s final men’s tennis season. the school’s last men’s tennis match before discontinuing the program featured a singles lineup featuring five international players and one American. Across both Saint Louis’s men’s and women’s teams. the final season included 12 foreigners and seven Americans. including just two players from the St. Louis area. The report singled out the range of countries represented that season. including Australia. Mexico. France. Costa Rica. and Mauritius Island. which is located in the Indian Ocean.
Arkansas’s tennis teams, too, were described as heavily international. Arkansas saving its women’s tennis program preserved a team that rostered seven Europeans and four Americans last season. The Razorbacks men’s roster, by contrast, was described as having just two Americans.
The tension isn’t about whether tennis programs deserve protection. The objection. as laid out alongside the bill’s push. is about how Cantwell’s pitch to cap pay for college athletes intersects with political arguments aimed at stopping cuts—especially when the affected tennis rosters include athletes who are citizens of other countries.
The bill Cantwell and Cruz are backing would also include scholarship and program protections for women’s and Olympic sports—provided that schools opt into a media rights-pooling plan that many believe would increase revenue. Cruz, meanwhile, emphasized the potential Olympic consequences if schools continue cutting sports programs.
“One of the really important parts of this bill is protecting women’s sports and Olympic sports and non-revenue sports. ” Cruz said. He added that the “status quo” is producing “devastation. ” saying. “If we don’t act. we’re going to continue to see devastation. and I. for one. don’t want to see an Olympics where every gold medal goes to Russia and China. and Americans are not able to compete because we’ve devastated the preparation of our Olympic athletes.”.
Cruz’s message rests on the role college sports play in elite preparation. College Sports Inc. is described as the engine behind Team USA, particularly in the Summer Games, and NCAA opportunities are said to contribute to the Olympics pursuits of athletes from other countries.
The argument for federal limits. however. collides with a separate reality: the federal government does not fund Team USA. which is described as privately funded. That distinction becomes part of the broader critique—raising the question of whether an Olympics pipeline should be tied so closely to individual schools’ support. including Saint Louis’s support for tennis or other universities’ support for sports such as swimming and wrestling.
The debate also points to how widespread the cuts have been in recent years, across hundreds of programs. The report referenced specific examples outside tennis to underscore the broader pattern of teams being reduced.
This time last year, Louisiana-Monroe dropped women’s tennis. Its final roster was described as including eight foreigners, with one player from China and zero American-born players. Illinois State cut its men’s tennis team after this season. and its final roster was described as having seven foreigners plus one guy from Indiana. The final North Dakota women’s tennis roster was described as having eight foreigners and no American players.
Another part of the dispute is grounded in the economics of one of the bill’s cited examples. Arkansas athletics operated at an $11.8 million surplus in the 2025 fiscal year. described as the last year before revenue-sharing with athletes kicked in. In that year, Arkansas’s tennis programs accounted for $2.35 million of more than $184 million in total athletics operating expenses. On those figures. the report argues tennis represented “a drop in the bucket. ” and that cutting it would have saved enough to pay for about one top football or basketball player.
Even with the bill offering protection for women’s and Olympic sports through an opt-in media pooling plan. the push for a federal compensation cap is where the criticism lands: protecting NCAA tennis teams described as “packed with foreigners” becomes. in this telling. a political rationale that would also limit pay for thousands of American college athletes.
The challenge now is that the debate is being fought on two fronts at once—team survival for women and Olympic sports on one side. and compensation limits for athletes more broadly on the other. As Cantwell and Cruz push for federal action. the underlying dispute remains whether the remedy being proposed is the one most directly aligned with the interests being defended.
NCAA college sports athlete compensation cap Maria Cantwell Ted Cruz tennis cuts Saint Louis Arkansas athletics Title IX Olympics College Sports Inc. media rights pooling