U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) openly targeted the financial dominance of the SEC and Big Tenduring yesterday’s Protect College Sports Act congressional hearing, according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger. Big TenCommissioner Tony Petitti dismissed any allegations of an impending merger as a “fabrication,” while former Alabama Football HC Nick Saban testified in support of the legislation’s national governance structure. Dellenger observes that the hearing highlighted an unusual political divide, with the two wealthiest conferences aligning with Democratic lawmakers to oppose the bill, while Cantwell argued the legislation’s media pooling provision is required to generate the estimated $4B to $8B necessary to prevent the elimination of Olympic and women’s sports programs. Cantwell also emphasized the necessity of federal intervention to protect the ACC and Big 12 from further realignment raids: “The ACC and Big 12 are saying, ‘I don’t want to be the Pac-12. Don’t come and eat my best parts and leave me for scraps.’ … If Senator Cruz and I, who disagree on a lot of things, can figure out how to agree, why can’t you guys fix this within your system of conferences and presidents? Why can’t you guys figure this out? It wasn’t that hard.”