Updated Bipartisan Protect College Sports Act Will Stabilize College Sports, Codify Athletes’ Rights & Protections in Law & Expand Athlete Compensation Opportunities

Senate Majority Leader takes key action, files cloture on bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) filed cloture on the updated bipartisan Protect College Sports Act (PCSA), moving the legislation a big step forward toward a vote by the full Senate. The landmark bill, which passed the Commerce Committee on June 18, sets new rules and provides new tools to stabilize college sports, including codifying athletes’ rights to earn compensation for their NIL, enshrining scholarship and healthcare protections in law, reining in predatory agents and preserving and protecting the future of women’s and Olympic sports.

“We need to stabilize the arms race. Athletes should have a federal law granting them the ability to earn compensation for their name, image, and likeness, and a federal law protecting their scholarships and healthcare,” said Commerce Committee Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). “Students should not have to pay surcharges in tuition to pay for sports. Schools should not be short-changing research dollars to pay for coaches’ salaries. Player gambling has to have consequences. And women’s and Olympic sports roster slots need to be protected. That is what the Protect College Sports Act does.”

The PCSA was introduced on May 27, 2026, led by Sen. Cantwell and Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and is cosponsored by Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.). The bill passed the Committee on June 18 with a bipartisan 19-9 vote.

The Protect College Sports Act:

PROTECTS ATHLETES:

First-ever National Rights and Protections for Student Athletes that Are Strong and Enforceable

• Grants student athletes a new federal right to earn compensation for their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and replaces the patchwork of state laws with a strong national NIL standard.
• Creates a new $22.5 million retention fund for schools to retain student athletes, and allows it to grow to $27.5 million if schools invest in NIL for women’s and Olympic sports.  
• Eliminates the revenue share cap in nine years or if the House settlement is terminated earlier, unless Congress votes to retain the revenue share cap or the revenue share cap and the retention fund.
• Sets NIL contract requirements that protect student athletes; contracts must include key terms like what the athlete must do under the contract and how much they will be paid.

New Agent Rules with Real Teeth to Protect Athletes From Exploitation

• Requires agents to register with a state and certify to the NCAA that they are registered before they can lawfully represent a student athlete.
• Caps agent fees at 5 percent.
• Prohibits agents from making fraudulent statements in their registration.
• Prohibits agents from misrepresenting NIL deals to entice student athletes to enroll or transfer. Gives athletes a private right of action to enforce their NIL rights and bring cases in court against unscrupulous agents.

10-year Scholarship Guarantee

• Guarantees scholarships for ten years after eligibility, so athletes can complete their degrees.
• Ensures student athletes cannot lose their scholarship because of injury or athletic performance.

Student Athletes’ Health and Safety Protections While in School

• Requires Division I schools to provide medical coverage while athletes are participating in sports, including covering the cost of a second opinion and providing an end-of-eligibility medical examination.
• Mandates safety standards for heat exertion, brain injury, sickle cell trait, and asthma; enforced by independent officers.
• Requires schools to designate independent health and safety officers who report to an office that is independent of the athletic department. These officers will oversee the implementation of the safety standards and be responsible for reporting any suspected violations.
• Prevents coaches or non-medical athletic personnel from second-guessing the decisions of medical personnel about a student’s ability to play.
• Requires schools to prevent, assess, and remediate abuse of athletes, hazing, sexual assault, sexual misconduct, and sexual harassment.

Healthcare Protections When the Game is Over

• For Division I schools, mandates 5 years of post-eligibility medical coverage for sports-related injuries. 
• Creates a medical trust fund of up to $100 million/year to help schools with demonstrated financial need provide post-eligibility medical coverage and to help athletes with the cost of significant, long-term conditions, like chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), incurred from playing a sport. Pooled media rights revenue from the SBA covered entity may be used for this fund.
• Allows the medical trust fund to scale with demand, with increases of $5 million a year if the fund is depleted, ensuring student-athletes can receive the care they need.

Strong Enforcement When Athletes’ Rights Are Violated

• Gives athletes a private right of action to enforce provisions of the bill, including their NIL rights, agent protections, health and safety standards, scholarship protections and medical coverage requirements.
• Athletes cannot be forced into arbitration if they seek to enforce their rights.

Clear Eligibility and Transfer Rules to Participate in Intercollegiate Sports

• Gives student athletes five years of eligibility beginning at 19 or high school graduation, with exceptions for reasons of pregnancy, religious mission, military service and other approved absences.
• Guarantees student athletes one transfer without losing eligibility. Student athletes who transfer a second time have to sit out a year, except in certain cases, including the discontinuation of their sport, sexual assault or harassment. 

Equal Treatment in Tournaments

• Requires the NCAA and conferences to maintain comparable standards across men’s and women’s teams for medical care, lodging, meals, rest, transportation, and athletic facilities at championship events or tournaments, including the newly added requirements related to publicity and promotion.

Protections for Women’s and Olympic Sports

• Prevents women’s and Olympic sports from being cut by requiring schools to maintain roster spots and grant-in-aid at the 2024-2025 levels for women’s and Olympic sports, no matter their participation in pooling media rights.
• Increases Title IX protections for whistleblowers and makes clear that this bill does not override, modify, or amend Title IX requirements.  Protects para-athletes’ walk-on eligibility so all student-athletes can participate in college sports.
• Requires schools that pool their media rights to promote and distribute the media rights for women’s and Olympic sports and preserve the current levels of promotion and distribution.

Athlete Ombudsman

• Creates an Office of Athlete Ombudsman at the NCAA to provide independent guidance and advice to student athletes, help them resolve disputes with schools and conferences and refer them to available resources.

Whistleblower Protections

• Provides whistleblower protection to individuals who report violations of the bill’s provisions and Title IX, a new statutory protection.

Student Athletes Get a Seat at the Table

• Requires at least one-third of athletic association governing boards or other committees with rulemaking authority to be comprised of current or recent former student athletes.
• Creates a Student Athlete Retention Council within the Future of College Sports Commission to provide recommendations on the future of the retention fund.

Expands Representation and Opportunities

• Requires two members of the Commission on the Future of College Athletics to be representatives from HBCUs and two members of the Commission to be representatives from a mid-sized conference.
• Creates a grant program — $180 million a year, for five years — at NTIA to support long-term improvements to the broadband, information technology and media infrastructure of HBCUs, including infrastructure for the production, transmission and distribution of live coverage of college sports and local journalism.

EXPANDS REVENUE TO BENEFIT SCHOOLS, ATHLETES, FANS

More Revenue for Every Participating School

• Schools may join a voluntary collective to pool and jointly negotiate their media rights, just like the NFL, NBA, and NHL. The bill amends the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 to extend this antitrust protection to college sports.
• No school or conference is forced to join. Existing media rights contracts are not abrogated.

Less Pressure on Endowments and Student Fees

• New pooled revenue under this bill gives schools more financial stability without raiding academics or charging students more.

Local Outlet Option for Football and Basketball

• Requires every football and basketball game to be made available on a non-exclusive basis to at least one local outlet in the home market of each participating school.

Media Rights Utilization for Non-Revenue Sports

• Requires distributors to reconvey media rights back to schools if those rights are not used, so non-revenue sports like volleyball, soccer and track can grow through targeted distribution rather than sitting on a shelf.

A Move Back to Regionalism

• Protects traditional rivalries on football schedules to ensure fans still get to see their favorite teams play each other.

Prohibits Mid-Season Coaching Transitions

• Prevents football coaches and key football staff from leaving mid-season to coach or otherwise effectively take over another FBS program during the same competitive season, including through recruiting, roster management, NIL activity or game-planning functions.

Greater Transparency and Integrity

• Requires that revenue share agreements, revenue and expenditures for each sports program, number of hours student-athletes spend on sports events, and the academic outcomes and majors by sport program be disclosed and included in the public database, allowing student-athletes, schools and conferences to have a full understanding of the NIL market.
• Clarifies that student athletes who place bets on platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, in addition to other sports wagering activity or using illegal or performance enhancing drugs, may have their eligibility restricted.

The updated text of the Protect College Sports Act can be found HERE.

A full list of supporters of the Protect College Sports Act can be found HERE.  

In June, the Washington Post published an op-ed by Sen. Cantwell: An arms race in college sports could sideline 500,000 athletes. At a June hearing on the bill, the Commerce Committee heard powerful testimony on the worsening crisis facing college athletics, including the future of women’s and Olympic sports, athletes’ rights and the financial sustainability of the entire collegiate sports system.

In March, Sen. Cantwell released a bipartisan discussion draft of the College Sports Competitive Act with Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) that would amend the Sports Broadcasting Act to allow colleges to pool their media rights in negotiations. 

In December of last year, she introduced the Helping Undergraduate Students Thrive with Long-Term Earnings (HUSTLE Act) with Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) so that college athletes earning NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) money can protect more of it for their post-playing lives. In October, Sen. Cantwell joined former college and professional athletes and Sens. Booker and Blumenthal in warning that the SCORE Act would roll-back hard fought NIL rights and health protections, leave athletes vulnerable to unscrupulous agents, short-change women’s and Olympic sports and shut the door on collective bargaining rights.

Last September, Sen. Cantwell, joined by co-sponsors Sens. Booker and Blumenthal, introduced the Student Athlete Fairness and Enforcement (SAFE) Act to codify athletes’ rights and protections in law, expand revenue for all schools, support women’s and Olympic sports and bring much-needed stability to the college sports system.

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