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CIVIC HERALD
HR 6350 · 119th Congress · HouseIn committee

College Athletics Reform Act

In plain language: This bill secures the right for college athletes to earn money from their name, image, and likeness and hire agents or lawyers without facing penalties from schools, athletic conferences, or associations like the NCAA. It allows international student-athletes on visas to earn endorsement income, caps athlete agent fees at 4 percent on endorsement deals, and gives athletes the right to cancel contracts once they leave school. The bill also establishes a federal commission to study college sports governance and collective bargaining, while requiring colleges to publicly disclose detailed data on athletic revenues, expenses, coach pay, and direct revenue sharing with athletes starting in 2026.

Provisional: our plain-language summary, pending review.

Provisionalunreviewed: impact, issue tags, provisions, stakeholders, summary
People affected—not determinable from the text provided
Fiscal magnitude—no CBO estimate published
Reach58provisional · pending reviewrigor: heuristic llm
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Issues

What this bill touches.

Market protections+35Courts & liability+35Levels of legal immigration+25Regulation (cross-sector)+40

The sign shows the bill's direction on each issue (+ toward, − away); the number is its magnitude. Color never encodes good or bad, and never party.

Who it affects

Who it helps · who it burdens.

Who it helps

  • College athletesSecures the right to earn compensation from name, image, and likeness (NIL), hire agents and attorneys without penalty, keep contracts private, void non-compliant contracts over $600, and sue athletic associations, conferences, and colleges for damages and attorney fees.provisional
  • International college athletesEstablishes eligibility for F student visas to compete in intercollegiate sports and protects visa status and admissibility when participating in NIL activities.provisional

Who it burdens

  • Athlete agentsCaps endorsement contract fees at 4 percent, requires state registration and certification before representing athletes, and mandates allowing athletes to terminate contracts upon leaving college.provisional
  • Intercollegiate athletic associations and conferencesProhibits restricting or penalizing athletes for NIL earnings or representation, forbids mandatory disclosure of NIL contracts, and exposes associations to FTC enforcement, state lawsuits, and private civil actions.provisional
  • Institutions of higher educationBars restricting athlete NIL compensation or representation, subjects institutions to FTC enforcement and private civil suits, and requires extensive annual public reporting on athletic revenues, expenses, coach salaries, scholarships, and Title IX compliance starting in 2026.provisional
  • Federal Trade CommissionCharges the FTC with enforcing NIL protections across collegiate athletics—including extending jurisdiction over nonprofit bodies and colleges—and directs the agency to conduct a study on certifying and regulating athlete agents.provisional

Who backs it

  • House of Representatives accounts and Senate contingent fundProvides funding for the Commission to Stabilize College Sports split equally between the applicable accounts of the House of Representatives and the contingent fund of the Senate.provisional

Dollar-level funding (FEC sector totals) is coming in a later phase.

What it does

The provisions, in plain language.

  1. Prohibits college athletic associations, conferences, and higher education institutions from restricting or penalizing college athletes for earning compensation from their name, image, or likeness.

    Sec. 3(a)provisional

  2. Prohibits athletic associations, conferences, and institutions from restricting or penalizing college athletes for hiring athlete agents, financial advisors, or attorneys.

    Sec. 3(b)provisional

  3. Allows college athletes to void any name, image, and likeness contract over $600 that fails to meet written disclosure standards, including required compensation details and the right to cancel the contract once no longer enrolled in college.

    Sec. 3(d)provisional

  4. Protects international college athletes on student visas from losing their legal immigration status or being denied entry for participating in name, image, and likeness activities.

    Sec. 3(e)(2)provisional

  5. Grants college athletes the right to sue athletic associations, conferences, or colleges for violations of their name, image, and likeness rights to recover actual damages, court orders, and attorney fees.

    Sec. 3(f)(3)provisional

  6. Caps athlete agent fees on college endorsement deals at 4 percent, requires agents to be state-registered before representing college athletes, and gives athletes the right to terminate agency agreements after leaving college.

    Sec. 4(a)provisional

  7. Establishes a 16-member congressional Commission to Stabilize College Sports to study governance, collective bargaining, Title IX, and revenue sharing, and to provide legislative recommendations within two years.

    Sec. 5provisional

  8. Requires colleges, starting in July 2026, to publicly report detailed annual data on sports revenues, expenses, coach compensation, athletic scholarships, direct revenue sharing with athletes, and Title IX compliance methods.

    Sec. 7(a)provisional

How your members of Congress line up

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Timeline

How it moved.

  1. Dec 2, 2025Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on the Judiciary, and Education and Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
  2. Dec 2, 2025Introduced in House
  3. Dec 2, 2025Introduced in House

The original text

Read it for yourself.

Read the original text →

Sources & provenance

Congress.govrefreshed 9 days ago

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