Overnight, the Protect College Sports Act hit another snag on its way to passage. Ted Cruz and his cronies couldn't round up enough support in his own party to actually bring the legislation to the floor for a full vote on the Senate floor. Now the PCSA—with many provisions that Notre Dame would love to see become federal law—is back in limbo after many promises from Cruz and others that it would pass.
On the face of it, it's not all bad that the legislation might be dead. Notre Dame might like provisions like more than doubling the revenue-share cap, but there's plenty that Fighting Irish players and fans wouldn't love either.
What could happen next, especially if it becomes clear that the PCSA won't pass, would be really disastrous for Notre Dame. It could be especially disastrous for the football program and its independence.
"If a compromise isn't reached among the leagues and NCAA, a self-governance model (Plan C) is necessary," Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger wrote on Saturday. "Some of the major conferences, most notably the SEC, are exploring a governance breakaway from the NCAA, where leagues independently create their own rules and enforce them."
Notre Dame football faces major questions if the SEC and Big Ten break from NCAA
"In theory, conferences governing a smaller group of members can avoid legal challenges as opposed to the antitrust losses in court that the NCAA has endured while managing more than 350 Division I schools alone."
Dellenger also pointed out the problem with self-governance—which might first sound quite attractive to Notre Dame backers—is that if the SEC comes up with one set of rules and the Big Ten comes up with another, the two conferences would have problems facing off against one another.
Knowing all that, the biggest question is: where would the collapse of the NCAA leave Notre Dame? At first glance, the Fighting Irish would seem well positioned to handle themselves in this new landscape. After all, if the SEC can't face off against the Big Ten or the ACC, there might be a better chance of turning to South Bend.
But what "self-governed" conference would Notre Dame match its own policies with? How exactly would that work since it's not a part of a conference? Those are questions that can't be answered until "Plan C" fully takes effect. When and if it does, it might be too late.
The most obvious side effect of a self-governance model would be that the Fighting Irish would finally have to join a conference in order to continue the program at all. As an aside, they may need to align with the ACC, which isn't the biggest or the best of the major conferences.
There's also the idea that with limited opponents, a new contract from NBC wouldn't be nearly as lucrative. If the network were smart, there would already be provisions in the current contract that would force a renegotiation if something like the complete and total collapse of the NCAA came to pass.
For the most part, Notre Dame has benefited as much as it could from the Protect College Sports Act negotiations. If it doesn't pass and everything falls apart, the landscape could change to something quite unattractive to the Fighting Irish.
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