Bi-Partisan Support Emerges for Protect College Sports Act of 2026
From the Committee of Commerce, Science, and Transportation:
U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) have reached a bipartisan agreement on legislation to restore stability to college sports, titled the Protect College Sports Act of 2026.
The Protect College Sports Act would restore order in college athletics by creating enforceable national rules, preserving fair competition, protecting student athletes, and ensuring fans do not lose the teams, rivalries, and traditions they love.
Additionally, the bill would end the chaos by bringing stability to transfers, eligibility, recruiting, tampering, and real Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rights for athletes; protect student athletes without turning college sports into professional sports; preserve fans’ favorite games and traditions; make TV money work for college sports; and restore competitive balance to ensure all schools, not just the blue bloods, can compete.
This is a DENSE Bill, and includes the following items addressed:
Establishes the bill as the Protect College Sports Act of 2026.
Protects student athletes’ right to earn NIL compensation.
Protects student athletes’ right to hire agents or legal representatives without losing eligibility, scholarships, or other school support.
Requires disclosure of NIL compensation over $600 per year while protecting student-athlete privacy.
Updates federal athlete-agent law to cover NIL activity.
Requires athlete-agent registration.
Prohibits deceptive agent conduct.
Requires agent contracts to include all key terms.
Caps agent fees at 5%.
Gives student athletes a private right of action against abusive or fraudulent agents and deceptive contracts.
Requires athletic associations to maintain a public, searchable registry of certified athlete agents.
Allows athletic associations to decertify or fine agents who violate applicable rules.
Requires Division I schools to report anonymized NIL data to their athletic association.
Requires athletic associations to maintain a privacy-protected NIL database to help athletes and families assess fair market value.
Protects student athletes from athletic department pressure over course or major selection.
Allows limits on athletic-related activities to protect academic progress.
Preserves student athletes’ access to internships and campus opportunities.
Prohibits scholarships from being reduced or revoked because of athletic performance, injury, illness, or roster management decisions.
Requires Division I schools to guarantee scholarships for 10 years after an athlete’s final season.
Requires Division I schools to cover out-of-pocket medical costs for sports-related injuries during participation and for five years after an athlete’s final competition.
Requires catastrophic injury coverage.
Requires second-opinion medical coverage.
Requires an end-of-college physical.
Creates a $60 million medical trust fund to help smaller schools provide coverage and support athletes with long-term conditions.
Requires schools, conferences, and athletic associations to follow health and safety standards for serious sports-related risks.
Covers risks including concussions, heat illness, rhabdomyolysis, sickle cell trait, and asthma.
Requires safeguards against abuse, hazing, sexual misconduct, and improper interference with medical decisions.
Requires schools to designate an independent health and safety officer.
Creates an independent Office of the Student Athlete Ombudsman to provide confidential, no-cost guidance to student athletes.
Requires comparable standards for medical care, lodging, meals, rest, transportation, and facilities at championship events across similarly situated men’s and women’s programs.
Prevents football coaches and key football staff from leaving mid-season to coach or effectively take over another FBS program during the same season.
Requires at least one-third of athletic association governing boards or rulemaking committees to be current or recent former student athletes.
Guarantees student athletes one transfer without losing eligibility.
Establishes rules and exceptions for additional transfers, including coach departures, discontinued sports, graduate study, and sexual assault or harassment.
Creates baseline eligibility rules for college athletes.
Establishes academic standards for eligibility.
Limits participation by professional athletes.
Creates a five-year eligibility framework beginning at age 19 or high school graduation.
Provides eligibility exceptions for pregnancy, religious mission, military service, and other approved absences.
Prohibits compensation arrangements and NIL agreements designed to evade the revenue-sharing cap or disguise pay-for-play inducements.
Preserves legitimate education- and athletics-related benefits allowed under the House settlement framework.
Continues the revenue-sharing cap after the House settlement expires or terminates.
Provides annual inflation adjustments to the revenue-sharing cap.
Creates a bipartisan Congressional Commission to study the future of college athletics.
Directs the commission to study athlete compensation, Olympic and women’s sports, spending limits, health and safety, agent rules, and the long-term structure of college sports.
Allows athletic associations to enforce rules against improper recruiting, transfer tampering, and inducements outside designated windows or without a student athlete’s affirmative consent.
Provides targeted antitrust protection for schools, conferences, and athletic associations that enforce the bill’s rules.
Allows student athletes and other affected parties to bring civil actions for specified violations of the Act.
Protects student athletes, employees, contractors, and others from retaliation for reporting or participating in proceedings involving suspected violations.
Preempts conflicting state and local laws governing NIL, transfers, and eligibility.
Preserves civil rights, tort, criminal, privacy, contract, trademark, copyright, consumer protection, and campus safety laws.
Clarifies that the Act is neutral on whether student athletes are employees or non-employees.
Provides that the title applies to actions or proceedings pending on or started after enactment.
Keeps the rest of the title in effect if one provision is found invalid.
Updates the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 with definitions for a college sports media-rights framework.
Creates a targeted antitrust exemption allowing schools and conferences to voluntarily pool and sell certain college sports media rights.
Requires 75% of current FBS schools to agree before creating the covered media-rights entity.
Establishes requirements for any covered media-rights entity, including open membership terms, voting protections, student athlete representation, revenue-distribution rules, support for the medical fund, protection of women’s and Olympic sports, and preservation of rivalries.
Requires at least one free local broadcast option for football and basketball games in each participating school’s local market.
Bars certain large-revenue conferences from consolidating with or acquiring other conferences.
Updates protected football broadcast periods by one week earlier in September and one week later in December.
States that the college football season and postseason should conclude by January 8, to the extent practicable.
Requires media distributors that acquire rights to non-football and non-basketball college sports to make those competitions reasonably available to the public or risk having the rights revert for resale or relicensing.
