The Senate on Thursday advanced a sweeping bipartisan measure to provide college athletics with rules on eligibility and transfers and give an antitrust exemption to enforce a cap on payments to athletes.

The measure, titled the Protect College Sports Act, passed in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on a 19-9 vote and now heads to the chamber floor for a final vote. 

The measure also creates an opportunity for schools to sell their media rights as one large entity instead of on a conference-by-conference basis – the purpose of which is to help fund less profitable sports and close the significant financial gap between most college sports and its two biggest conferences, the SEC and Big Ten, according to ESPN.

“We can sit in the stands and watch the system continue to unravel, or we can step onto the field and lead,” said committee Chairman Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican. “I believe this moment calls for leadership. No more punting, we’re in 4th down territory, it’s time to go for it.”

The bill serves “To protect the name, image, and likeness rights of, and provide protections for, student athletes and to promote fair competition among intercollegiate athletics, and for other purposes.”

Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the committee, called the measure “landmark” legislation and thanked Cruz and other lawmakers for having worked for months to revise it. 

“What we did today was say we're not going to let the most powerful, richest conferences dictate to the rest of America what's going to happen to 500,000 athletes," Cantwell said.

The NFL, its player’s association, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and more than 20 conferences, including the ACC and Big 12, have endorsed the bill. The SEC and Big Ten Conferences have not backed the bill.

The bill has explicit protections for women’s athletes in Olympic sports, and it protects scholarship opportunities and competitive equity in non-revenue sports. The bill protects athletes from predator contracts that take advantage of young athletes, holding agents accountable to federal law. It will increase streaming rights for sports with less broadcasting.

An amendment to the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 would allow schools to voluntarily pool and jointly negotiate their media rights, according to CBS Sports. Therefore, proponents say the money generated could go towards women's and Olympic sports.

Sens. Cantwell, Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., spoke Thursday about local broadcasting and fans struggling to watch their favorite teams due to paywalls.

The next step for the bill will be a full Senate vote.