by Ellis Preston, Cronkite News
September 28, 2026
WASHINGTON – The Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill Monday that would impose federal rules on the way college athletes are compensated, shield the NCAA from antitrust lawsuits over eligibility rules and other restrictions, and limit mid-season transfers of coaches and players.
Backers say the Protect College Sports Act will end chaos in major conferences and bidding wars for talent that force universities to cut back on nonrevenue programs like women’s and Olympic sports.
Critics call it troubling to insert the federal government into college athletics and say the measure would undermine athletes’ negotiating leverage.
The co-authors, Commerce Committee chair Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., argue that college athletics needs a national set of rules that only Congress can provide.
“It’s about protecting the underdog and ensuring that each and every team has the opportunity to develop and compete,” Cruz said during the debate Monday.
The bill would give athletes a right to share in revenues they generate for a school, though it would limit direct payments. It would protect scholarships in case players get hurt, and ensure medical care for years after their college playing careers end.
College sports have changed rapidly since the NCAA lifted restrictions in July 2021 on athletes receiving revenue from the use of their name, image and likeness.
A 2025 antitrust settlement allowed colleges to pay athletes directly, up to $20.5 million per school, with the cap tied to 22% of revenue generated by the biggest college sports conferences. The pending bill would codify that system.
“The era of NIL is here, not going away. Yet the system we have today is unsustainable, plain and simple,” Cruz said. “Conflicting court decisions have created a fragmented system, one that no one intended.”
The Senate approved the bill 77-22 on Monday night. The proposal faces an uncertain future in the House, which is in recess until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Opponents include Grant House, a former Arizona State University swimmer who was a lead plaintiff in the 2025 settlement known as House v. NCAA.
In an interview with Cronkite News, House said he is concerned that Congress is ignoring the needs and voices of athletes. He cited the provision that exempts the NCAA from antitrust lawsuits like the one he was part of.
“Players will lose the ability to collectively bargain those components if they give the NCAA basically all of its power back by passing this bill,” he said.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. – who played varsity football for Stanford – also argued that the bill is trampling the rights that athletes have long fought for.
“At its core, it’s a bill that undermines the rights of young people to pour their blood, sweat, tears … into their craft,” he said on the floor Monday before the vote.
In the last few years, he said, athletes had managed to gain “more power and more leverage, and that’s a scary thing for the NCAA.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., also argued against the bill on grounds that it strips athletes’ leverage and unfairly imposes a federal cap on their share of revenue they generate for schools.
“This bill only caps the money going to the players and does nothing to cap the money going to the coaches,” he said during the debate. “This antitrust exemption will allow schools in some cases to continue their practices that compromise athletes’ safety.”
The bill would let colleges spend up to $22.5 million beyond the existing revenue-sharing cap to retain athletes, plus another $5 million for schools that invest in women’s and other nonrevenue sports.
Under the legislation, sponsors would have to disclose contracts in order to distinguish name, image and likeness deals from payments used primarily for recruiting.
That distinction is intended to limit bidding wars that have developed around recruiting and retaining players. Advocates of the Cruz-Cantwell bill say these caps are needed to protect nonrevenue sports – including some women’s and Olympic sports – that universities have been cutting to free up resources for high-priority athletes.
“Will we protect the future of women’s sports, of Olympic sports, of non-revenue sports, or allow college athletics to be consumed by uncontrollable bidding wars that force schools to cut programs simply because they don’t generate headlines or massive television contracts?” Cruz said.
A co-sponsor, Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., who played college football and baseball, said the legislation will protect athletes from unscrupulous agents and sponsors.
“That’s not taking power away from athletes, that’s giving them protections they simply do not have right now,” he argued.
He acknowledged initial skepticism about Congress involving itself in college sports, but said he realized that Congress is the “only entity on planet Earth” that can grant limited antitrust protection to the NCAA.
Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the second-ranking Senate Republican, said last week that college sports are “falling apart.”
“Rosters are being rebuilt every year through an unrestricted transfer market,” he said on the floor Wednesday. “Schools are locked in an arms race of ever increasing NIL spending.”
One of the most consequential and contested provisions of the bill would limit transfers, allowing only one before an athlete would have to sit out for a year, with some exceptions. Athletes have successfully sued the NCAA over such restrictions.
Critics of the bill say the antitrust exemptions would eliminate a major tool students have used to win greater compensation and flexibility.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., argued that the nation’s founders would be shocked to see the federal government imposing its will in this area.
“I don’t think it ever occurred to them that Congress would one day be in charge of dictating the rules for college sports,” Paul said last week.
Support was bipartisan and wide, though.
“This isn’t about political party or even what team you cheer for. It’s about the future of young Americans,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said last week, arguing that Congress needs to step in to protect a “collapsing college sports system.”
“It will make for stronger teams where athletes know each other, and the coaches and the fans know who they’re coaching and who they’re cheering for,” he said.
President Donald Trump supports the bill. On Aug. 6, the White House called for legislation to “preserve and strengthen this institution that is central to American culture and success.”
“The future of college sports, especially the future of Olympic and non-revenue sports, is threatened by significant legal and financial uncertainty,” the White House said. “Federal legislative action is imperative to fix the statutory ambiguities, ensure liability protection and uniform standards, and stop the endless litigation that is fueling this crisis.”
Cronkite News reporter Tre Heard in Phoenix contributed to this report.
This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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