YourVoice.Now Summary
Corporate BenefitsAverage Household ImpactCivil LibertiesTransparency & AccountabilitySets federal NIL rules for college athletes, requires schools to cover injury costs for 5 years after playing, and shields the NCAA from antitrust suits.
Corporate Benefits
- Antitrust exemption — Covers enforcement of athlete pay and eligibility rules
- Media-rights antitrust exemption — Lets schools and conferences sell broadcasts jointly
- Revenue share cap on athlete pay — Continued after the 2025 court settlement expires
- Mega-conference mergers — Barred for football conferences above $700M revenue
- Coach pay from non-athletic funds — Capped at $500K at schools above $80M revenue
Average Household Impact
- Free local broadcast access — Required for each college football and basketball game
Civil Liberties
- Court access for student athletes — Pre-dispute arbitration agreements voided
- Class-action rights for athletes — Pre-dispute joint-action waivers voided
- Immediate court access — Title I claims require 60-day notice and cure first
- Court access for broadcast claims — One-year notice and cure required first
Transparency & Accountability
- Whistleblower protections — Added for athletes and staff reporting violations
- Reporting requirements — Schools must disclose NIL and revenue data each year
- Public NIL database — Associations must publish anonymized deal-value data
- Athlete-agent registry — Associations must maintain a public searchable list
- Oversight commission — Congress to study and report on college sports in 5 years
The details
College athletes, their schools, and the NCAA would operate under a new federal rulebook. It covers name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals and college sports broadcasting. Athletes could earn money from their NIL without losing eligibility. Athletes would have to report any deal worth more than $600 to their school. Agents could charge no more than 5 percent of an endorsement deal. Agents would also have to register with a state. Division I schools would have to cover athletes' out-of-pocket and catastrophic injury costs. That includes five years of care after their college careers end. Athletic associations would fund a pool of at least $60 million for long-term injuries such as CTE. That pool could rise up to $100 million. The bill caps how much schools can pay athletes directly, called the "revenue share cap." It keeps that cap in place even after the 2025 House court settlement expires. It also limits what the biggest-budget schools can pay coaches from non-athletic funds. The NCAA, conferences, and schools get a conditional shield from antitrust lawsuits when they enforce these rules. Schools and conferences could jointly sell their TV rights through a "covered entity." Each football and basketball game would need at least one free local broadcast. And the largest football conferences would be barred from merging. Provisions added in committee protect women's and Olympic sports rosters and scholarships at well-funded schools. They guarantee mid-sized conferences seats on governing boards. They add whistleblower protections. They also set up a 24-member congressional commission to study the future of college sports.
Congressional Summary
Protect College Sports Act of 2026This bill establishes requirements for name, image, or likeness (NIL) agreements for college student athletes and provides a limited antitrust exemption for schools and conferences to pool and sell certain college sports media rights. The requirements address elements of the court-approved agreement to settle In re College Athlete NIL Litigation (i.e., House settlement).First, the bill statutorily prohibits institutions, conferences, or interstate intercollegiate athletic associations (e.g., the National Collegiate Athletic Association [NCAA]) from restricting student athletes from entering NIL agreements (subject to specified limitations). Students must report to their institution NIL compensation greater than $600.The bill requires agents to register with a state and caps agent endorsement contract fees at 5%.The bill also provides student athletes with one transfer without losing athletic eligibility and restricts football personnel from becoming the head football coach at a different institution during the same season.Further, the bill prohibits institutions, conferences, or specified entities acting for the benefit of an institution from providing athletes with compensation that circumvents the limit on sharing revenue with student athletes established under the House settlement. The bill also makes the limit permanent and provides for an annual inflation adjustment.Additionally, the bill establishes (subject to specified conditions) a limited antitrust exemption for institutions or conferences that form joint agreements to transfer their sports telecasting rights to a third party. Such an agreement requires participation from at least 75% of the institutions in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in Senate
- Action Date
- 2026-06-02
- Date Added
- 2026-06-24
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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