Protect College Sports Act of 2026

What this does

This bill rewrites college sports rules across three areas. On athlete rights, it bars colleges, conferences, and the NCAA from stopping a student athlete from earning money for their name, image, or likeness, or from cutting scholarships or eligibility over it, with narrow exceptions for code of conduct violations or unauthorized use of school trademarks or facilities. It lets the NCAA and conferences cap total athlete pay at the same limit set in the pending House v. NCAA settlement, and makes it legal under antitrust law to enforce that cap along with transfer limits, eligibility rules, recruiting and tampering restrictions, and mid season coaching move bans. A school can exceed the cap by up to $22.5 million a year, plus up to $5 million more for non revenue sports, to retain athletes who have played at least one season, but that allowance expires after nine years, and the cap itself is not permanent: it exists only as long as the underlying private court settlement stays in effect, and lapses if Congress does not vote to extend it within a fast tracked 30 day window after the settlement ends or is thrown out. Athletes get medical coverage for sports injuries during their playing years and for five years after, a national NCAA injury fund kept at $60 million to $100 million, one penalty free transfer between four year schools, and the right to sue in court, not arbitration, over most of these protections. The bill takes no position on whether athletes are legal employees. It also creates a 24 member commission to study athlete pay, the revenue cap, and enforcement over the next five years. On broadcasting, the bill lets schools and conferences representing at least 75 percent of Football Bowl Subdivision programs form a single entity to jointly sell media rights without violating antitrust law, so long as any Division I school or conference can join, each member gets a revenue floor at least as high as its best year from 2021 through 2025, at least 15 percent of remaining media rights revenue is split evenly among Football Bowl Subdivision schools that earned football media revenue in the 2024-2025 season, and at least one outlet in each member's home market carries its football and basketball games at no charge to viewers. March Madness and College Football Playoff rights before August 2032 are excluded from the pooling, and no school is required to join. The bill also makes it illegal for a conference that reported more than $700 million in revenue on its 2025 tax return to merge with or absorb another major conference in a way that would shrink its share of Football Bowl Subdivision membership below 75 percent, though this does not apply to conferences below that revenue level or block formation of the joint media entity itself. A third, separate piece authorizes $180 million from 2027 through 2032 for Commerce Department grants to historically Black colleges and other minority serving institutions to upgrade broadband, media, and sports broadcast infrastructure.

Senate vote · 77-22

Democrats

26-19

Republicans

50-2

Independents

1-1

How we know · 15 sourced claims

The bill bars institutions, conferences, and intercollegiate athletic associations from restricting a student athlete's ability to earn compensation for their name, image, or likeness or from entering into a name, image, and likeness agreement, and from cutting eligibility or a grant-in-aid because a student athlete did so, with exceptions for agreements that violate a school's code of conduct or misuse the school's trademarks or facilities without consent.Source: Sec. 101(a)(1), listing what an institution, conference, or intercollegiate athletic association may not do regarding student athlete name, image, and likeness rights; Sec. 101(a)(3), the code-of-conduct and unauthorized-use exceptions.
The bill lets the NCAA and conferences cap total athlete compensation at the revenue share cap defined by the pending House v. NCAA settlement, and shields enforcement of that cap from antitrust liability, while letting a school exceed the cap by up to $22,500,000 a year, plus up to $5,000,000 more for non-revenue-generating sports, to retain athletes who have played at least one full season.Source: Sec. 100(19), defining the revenue share cap by reference to the Injunctive Relief Settlement Agreement in In Re College Athlete NIL Litigation; Sec. 114(a)(1)-(2), the compensation prohibition and the retention fund exceptions; Sec. 118(a)(1), exempting enforcement of Sec. 114 from the antitrust laws.
The revenue share cap and retention fund are not permanent. The $22,500,000 retention fund exception expires nine years after enactment, and if the underlying court settlement expires or is terminated, the cap and fund automatically cease to have force or effect unless Congress passes a joint resolution approving their continuation within a fast-tracked, 30-calendar-day window.Source: Sec. 114(a)(2)(C), the nine-year time limitation on the retention fund exception; Sec. 115(a), providing the cap and fund cease to have force or effect absent congressional approval; Sec. 115(b)-(e), the notice and fast-track joint-resolution procedure.
The bill also shields the NCAA and conferences from antitrust liability for writing and enforcing rules on transfer limits, eligibility standards, recruiting and tampering restrictions, mid-season coaching moves, athlete agent registration, and postseason selection, and for fining or restricting schools, employees, or athletes who break those rules.Source: Sec. 118(a)(2)-(9), listing sections 115, 113, 101, 117, 112, 103, and postseason-selection rules as exempt from the antitrust laws; Sec. 118(b), the fines and eligibility restrictions permitted.
Athletes can sue in court over violations of the name, image, and likeness, medical-coverage, health-and-safety, ombudsman, board-representation, transfer, and eligibility protections named in the bill, and schools cannot force them into individual arbitration or enforce a joint-action waiver against a lawsuit with at least seven named plaintiffs, though a plaintiff must first give 30 days' written notice and a chance to cure, except for claims involving physical injury, death, or sexual abuse.Source: Sec. 119(a), listing the sections enforceable by private civil action; Sec. 119(d), barring pre-dispute arbitration agreements and joint-action waivers against actions with seven or more named plaintiffs; Sec. 119(f), the 30-day notice-and-cure requirement and its exception.
The bill requires Division I schools, and Division II or III schools for athletes who compete at the Division I level, to cover out-of-pocket medical costs for sports injuries during athletes' playing careers and for five years after their last season, cover a second medical opinion, and carry catastrophic injury coverage above $90,000, and requires an NCAA-wide fund for post-eligibility injury costs kept at $60,000,000 to $100,000,000.Source: Sec. 106(a), the required medical coverage; Sec. 106(b)(1)-(2), the post-eligibility insurance and catastrophic injury fund and its funding floor and ceiling.
Athletes get one transfer between four-year schools without losing eligibility, additional penalty-free transfers if their sport is discontinued, their head coach leaves, they are sexually assaulted or harassed by someone tied to the school, or they are pursuing a graduate degree, and a second ordinary transfer costs them a year of eligibility.Source: Sec. 112(1)-(3).
The bill blocks states from enforcing laws that conflict with its rules on name, image, and likeness compensation, transfers, or eligibility, but it leaves in place state civil-rights, tort, criminal, privacy, contract, trademark, copyright, and consumer-protection law, and preserves the right to sue over personal injury, wrongful death, sexual assault, harassment, hazing, or fraud.Source: Sec. 121(a), the preemption of conflicting state law; Sec. 121(b), the list of preserved state-law categories and causes of action.
The bill takes no position on whether college athletes are legal employees. It neither grants nor denies that status.Source: Sec. 122: "This title is neutral on, and does nothing to alter, employee or non-employee status for student athletes."
The bill creates a 24-member Congressional Commission on the Future of College Athletics, appointed by congressional leaders, to study athlete pay structures, the revenue cap, and health, safety, and enforcement issues, and requires a preliminary report within 30 months and a final report within 5 years of enactment.Source: Sec. 116(a)-(b), establishing the Commission and its 24-member composition; Sec. 116(d)(3)-(4), the 30-month preliminary and 5-year final report deadlines.
The bill lets institutions and conferences representing at least 75 percent of Football Bowl Subdivision schools form a single entity to jointly sell media rights without violating antitrust law, requires that entity to accept any Division I school or conference that wants to join, to guarantee each member a media-revenue floor at least as high as its best year from 2021 through 2025, and to distribute at least 15 percent of remaining collective media rights revenue equally among Football Bowl Subdivision schools that received football media rights revenue in the 2024-2025 season.Source: Sec. 203, adding new Sec. 5(b)(1) (75 percent membership threshold) and Sec. 5(b)(2) (invitation requirement) to the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961; new Sec. 5(d)(2)(A)-(B) (revenue floor and 15 percent equal-share distribution).
The joint media rights requirement does not cover NCAA basketball tournament media rights or College Football Playoff rights before August 1, 2032, and no school or conference is required to join the joint entity or transfer any media rights to it.Source: Sec. 203, new Sec. 5(f)(1)-(2) of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, excluding NCAA basketball tournament and pre-2032 College Football Playoff rights from mandatory contribution; new Sec. 5(i)(1), stating nothing in the Act requires a school or conference to join or transfer rights.
As a condition of the antitrust exemption, the joint media entity must make at least one outlet available at no charge to viewers, in each participating school's home market, to carry its football and basketball games.Source: Sec. 204, new Sec. 6(b)(1) of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961.
The bill makes it illegal under antitrust law for a conference that reported more than $700,000,000 in revenue on its 2025 tax return to merge with or acquire another major conference if the deal would shrink its Football Bowl Subdivision membership share below 75 percent, or to acquire schools beyond a 20-institution cap, but this does not apply to conferences that have not crossed the $700,000,000 threshold and does not block formation of the joint media entity itself.Source: Sec. 205, new Sec. 7(a) of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, the merger and acquisition prohibition and the 75 percent and 20-institution thresholds; new Sec. 7(d)-(e), the exemptions for the joint media entity and for conferences below the revenue threshold.
The bill authorizes $180,000,000 from fiscal year 2027 through fiscal year 2032 for competitive Commerce Department grants to historically Black colleges and other minority-serving institutions for broadband, media, and sports-broadcast infrastructure, prioritized toward campuses with the greatest demonstrated broadband need and the most limited ability to raise funds for upgrades themselves.Source: Sec. 307, authorizing $180,000,000 for fiscal years 2027 through 2032; Sec. 302(c)(1)(A)-(B), the priority criteria for greatest infrastructure need and most limited fundraising capacity.

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Reported lobbying

At least

organizations named this measure in a lobbying filing.

A floor, not a total. Those organizations were counted by the client name on 103 quarterly reports filed by 31 lobbying firms and by 53 organizations lobbying for themselves in 2026 Q2. The disclosure form takes a free text description of the issue, so an organization that lobbied this measure without naming it is not counted here.

13 of those filings did not cite this bill by number. They named a short title it shares with its House companion, HR 9137, so the reference belongs to the pair rather than to one chamber’s vehicle.

The filings record that lobbying was reported on the measure. The form has no per-bill dollar figure and no field for a position (a filer may describe one in its own words), so nothing here says how much was spent or which side an organization took.

5 of them, in no ranking

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI
BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY - STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
UNIVERSITY OF DENVER

Listed as filed, in the order the filings were read, and 83 others are not shown. These are not the largest, the earliest or the most active: we keep five names per measure, and the filings give no ranking.

From the LD-2 quarterly lobbying filings published at lda.gov by the Senate Office of Public Records. Read for 2025 Q1, 2025 Q2, 2025 Q3, 2025 Q4, 2026 Q1 and 2026 Q2. Our copy holds 2 fewer filings for 2025 Q4 and 7 fewer filings for 2026 Q2 than the Senate's register counts, so those quarters are the filings we could read rather than every one filed. 2026 Q3 is still inside its filing window, so that quarter is only the filings posted so far.

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