President Donald Trump on Thursday broke his silence over competing bills that would implement major changes to college sports, backing a bipartisan Senate measure and calling for the House and Senate to come together and send him legislation to sign this summer.

In a social media post, Trump backed the Senate’s bill, primarily drafted by Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and ranking Democrat Maria Cantwell of Washington. Missouri GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt and Delaware Democratic Sen. Chris Coons were original co-sponsors.

“This Law resolves many of the most urgent issues challenging our Universities and Student-Athletes, stops the chaos and, most importantly, it may be the last chance to save College Sports, and Colleges themselves, before it’s too late,” Trump wrote, a day after the panel heard from a number of college officials who also support the measure.

A longtime sports fan, Trump for months has called collegiate athletics a seriously flawed industry that could soon collapse under the financial weight of its name, image and likeness or “NIL” policies. Echoing college officials, coaches, fans and many lawmakers, the president also has criticized the transfer portal for creating chaos and undermining student-athletes.

The House and Senate for months appeared on a collision course as the chambers put together competing versions that approached thorny issues much differently. 

While Trump applauded Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both Louisiana Republicans, for trying to write and pass their own bill, on Thursday he called for the chambers to quickly coalesce around the Cruz-Cantwell measure.

“I urge the House and Senate to come together to pass a final Bipartisan Law, that I can sign this summer, that reflects the views and input of both Chambers. WE HAVE TO SAVE COLLEGE SPORTS! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump said.

The Commerce Committee has not yet set a date for a markup, but aides from both parties say they hope to do so this month.

At the Wednesday hearing, Cruz noted that the “House of Representatives tried multiple times to pass a bill, unfortunately, it failed repeatedly,” describing the Senate measure as “the only bipartisan bill out there.”

“It is the last, best hope we have to save college sports,” Cruz said to a panel of senior college sports officials. “If Congress fails to act, if we get locked up in partisan gridlock and we just yell at each other, which sadly, we’re very good at, what happens to college sports three, four, five years from now?”

Nick Saban, a former head football coach at the University of Alabama and Louisiana State University who won seven national titles, told the Commerce Committee that without federal legislation “we’re going to be paying a player so much, and I really think the only way to remedy this is, you know, we have competitive conferences, we have competitive teams, we have competitors involved in trying to create an advantage for themselves in every way that we can.”

Without the Cruz-Cantwell bill, which he backed, Saban warned “we’re … making these huge investments in football and basketball, in terms of paying players, which is going up and up and up and up, that we should change the [term] from ‘student-athlete’ to ‘athlete that’s a student,’ because we’re going to have professional sports teams that are sponsored by colleges and universities.”