The Protect College Sports Act would put into federal law that college athletes can be paid for their name, image and likeness. It would also tighten transfer rules so a player could move schools once without a penalty, and it would cap eligibility at five years.
Schools could grow the direct-payment pool for athletes, with as much as $5 million earmarked for women's and Olympic sports, areas that usually generate less income than men's football and basketball. The measure would also provide the NCAA, conferences and schools with a disputed antitrust carve‑out to allow enforcement of particular rules.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R‑Texas, who co-leads the bill with Sen. Maria Cantwell, D‑Wash., cast the proposal as a way to bring order to the current landscape, saying, "The NIL era is here. The Protect College Sports Act embraces this new reality by codifying and protecting the rights of student athletes to earn money from their name, image, and likeness, and establishing the rules necessary to end the chaos." Cruz and Cantwell serve as the leading Republican and Democratic members on the Senate Commerce Committee.
About five years after court rulings pushed the NCAA to suspend its longstanding ban on compensating students and loosen transfer restrictions, college sports shifted into a phase where top football and basketball players could move freely and land million-dollar NIL deals.
The new reality sparked backlash. Complaints have poured in from smaller colleges, women and Olympic-sport athletes, fans, and coaches about power conferences consolidating influence. Congress has scrambled with hearings and a raft of proposals, but efforts repeatedly stalled. A comparable earlier plan, the SCORE Act, was withdrawn after pushback from the Congressional Black Caucus.
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The Senate is poised to approve the Protect College Sports Act as one of its last actions before leaving town later this week, in the run-up to the 2026 midterm election. The outlook in the House is murkier, as the Congressional Black Caucus and outside organizations, including the NAACP, are opposed.
The CBC, with more than 50 members between the two chambers, stated it could not back legislation that would benefit "major athletic institutions that continue to remain silent while Black voting rights and Black political power are being systematically dismantled across the South." That statement followed a Supreme Court decision that weakened parts of the Voting Rights Act. The caucus also opposes the current bill.
Critics such as Sen. Chris Murphy, D‑Conn., argue the plan centralizes power with the NCAA and conferences, disadvantaging players. Earlier this month he said at a virtual press conference, "What this bill does at its core is to protect a system of exploitation. This bill protects the billions of dollars that coaches and sports industry executives are making over the suppression of compensation for some of the most highly valued athletes in the world," adding, "This bill seeks to give an unprecedented antitrust exemption to an industry that is violating the law every single day."
A national NIL rulebook would reshape how cash flows through college sports: how athletes get paid, how often they can change schools, and how universities allocate funding across programs. If it becomes law, it would cement NIL rights, set clear boundaries on eligibility and transfers, and create room for schools to steer up to $5 million toward women's and Olympic sports. If your world touches universities, local businesses, or media tied to college athletics, expect shifts in who earns what and how steady those dollars look.
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