Protect College Sports Act of 2026
This bill secures college athletes' rights to earn money through Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) contracts by prohibiting universities or athletic associations from restricting their compensation or reducing their scholarships. Division I athletic programs would also be required to pay for all of their players' sports-injury medical expenses during college and for five years after they leave, which is backed by a new national $60 million hardship fund. Additionally, the legislation provides athletes with the right to transfer schools once without losing eligibility, limits football coaches from joining another program mid-season, and guarantees that athletes make up at least one-third of college sports governing boards. Finally, it creates a public database to track fair-market value for student sponsorship deals and establishes a congressional commission to study the future of college sports.
What this bill touches.
Who it helps · who it burdens.
Who it helps
- college student-athletesGain federally protected rights to earn NIL money, keep eligibility after hiring an agent, transfer once freely, receive injury medical coverage during and for 5 years after college, return to finish a degree, and sue over violations.
- former student-athletes without a degreeDivision I schools must let those from the past 10 years who left without a degree return and finish with the same scholarship amount they had before.
- women's college sports programsConferences and associations must give comparable medical care, lodging, meals, transport, and facilities for women's championship events as for men's.
- sports agents and athletes' lawyersAthletes may not be made ineligible for hiring an agent or lawyer, and the prior agent-contract warning about losing eligibility is struck from federal law.
Who it burdens
- colleges and universities with athletic programsMust cover athletes' injury medical costs, follow national health and safety standards, report NIL and revenue data, give scholarship and academic-freedom protections, reserve athlete board seats, and face new lawsuits and whistleblower duties.
- national athletic associations and conferencesMust run agent and fair-market-value databases, fund the Ombudsman office, follow medical-authority rules, and bankroll a fund of at least $60 million a year.
- head football coaches and coordinators at top-tier programsBarred from taking head-coaching duties at another school during the same active season, with eligibility and other penalties for violating the rule.
- media distributors of college sports rightsMust actively broadcast licensed non-football, non-basketball college games within a year or forfeit the rights back to the schools.
Who backs it
- national athletic associationsMust fund a program of at least $60 million each year to cover lower-revenue schools' medical costs and long-term care for brain-injured athletes, potentially using collective media-rights revenue.
- House and Senate accountsThe Congressional Commission is funded by such sums as necessary, split between a House account and the Senate contingent fund.
Who opposes it
- state governments regulating college athleticsStates are blocked from enforcing laws that conflict with this framework on athlete NIL, transfers, and eligibility, overriding state authority in those areas.