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.
The provisions, in plain language.
Bars schools, conferences, and national athletic associations from stopping student-athletes from earning money off their name, image, and likeness (NIL), and from cutting their eligibility or scholarship for doing so.
Requires anyone using a group of athletes' combined NIL to sell or promote a product to first get written agreement from every athlete in the group.
Lets a school cut an athlete's eligibility if their NIL deal breaks the student code of conduct that applies to all students, or uses the school's logos, uniforms, or trademarks without permission.
Requires Division I athletes and recruits to report NIL deals or compensation worth more than $600 to their school within 30 days, and keeps that information private unless the athlete consents to release it.
Lets schools, conferences, associations, and outside parties directly pay or arrange NIL compensation to athletes.
Bars schools and associations from cutting an athlete's eligibility just because the athlete hired a sports agent or lawyer.
Amends the federal agent law so NIL deals count as agency contracts, and requires associations to run a public, searchable database of certified agents, with power to decertify or fine agents who break the rules.
Requires Division I schools to report anonymized NIL deal data to their association each year, and requires the association to run a public database athletes can use to estimate the fair market value of their NIL.
Bars athletic-department staff from pressuring athletes over their course or major choices, retaliating for those choices, or blocking athletes from jobs, internships, or student activities outside required team time.
Bars schools from cutting or reducing an athlete's scholarship based on athletic performance, injury or illness, or roster decisions, and requires written notice before any scholarship reduction.
Requires Division I schools to let former scholarship athletes from the past 10 years who left without a degree return and finish, paying the same scholarship amount they had before.
Requires Division I schools to cover athletes' out-of-pocket medical costs for sports injuries during their college career and for 5 years after, plus second opinions, catastrophic injury insurance, and an exit physical.
Requires the national athletic association to keep a fund of at least $60 million a year to help lower-revenue schools cover those medical costs and to pay for long-term care of athletes with serious brain or cognitive injuries.
Requires schools, conferences, and associations to follow national medical standards for concussions, heat illness, rhabdomyolysis, sickle cell trait, and asthma, to act against abuse, hazing, and sexual misconduct, and to name an independent health and safety officer.
Gives medical staff final, unchallengeable authority over athletes' medical care and return-to-play decisions, and bars coaches and other non-medical staff from overriding them.
Requires associations to set up a free, confidential Office of the Student Athlete Ombudsman that gives athletes independent advice on their rights, contracts, and disputes.
Requires conferences and associations to provide comparable medical care, lodging, meals, transport, and facilities for men's and women's championship events.
Bars a head coach or coordinator at a top-tier (Football Bowl Subdivision) football program from moving to do head-coaching duties at another school during the same active season, with penalties for violations.
Requires at least one-third of the seats and voting power on athletic governing and rulemaking boards to be current or recently graduated student-athletes.
Requires schools and associations to let athletes transfer once without losing a year of eligibility, with added exemptions for situations like a coach leaving or sexual harassment.
Limits athletes to five years of college eligibility starting after high school or age 19, pausing only for pregnancy, religious mission, or military service.
Bars schools and others from offering NIL deals that exceed the court-approved revenue-sharing cap or that are not for a genuine, fair-market business purpose.
Creates a Congressional Commission on the Future of College Athletics, with subpoena power, to study and recommend on athlete pay, collective bargaining, health standards, and the revenue cap, funded by sums as necessary from House and Senate accounts.
Lets associations enforce recruiting and tampering rules that limit contacting committed athletes outside set five-week windows and bar inducement payments.
Shields associations, conferences, and schools from antitrust lawsuits when they enforce the transfer, eligibility, recruiting, cap, and coach-movement rules in this law.
Gives athletes the right to sue schools and associations in court for violations of this law, awards damages and possible attorney's fees, and bans forcing athletes into pre-dispute arbitration or joint-action waivers.
Protects athletes, employees, contractors, and others from retaliation for reporting suspected violations of this law to the government, with court remedies including reinstatement and back pay.
Blocks states from enforcing laws that conflict with this federal framework on athlete NIL, transfers, and eligibility, while leaving civil rights, tort, privacy, contract, and similar state laws in place.
Narrows the protected fall blackout dates so professional football may be broadcast on more autumn Fridays and Saturdays alongside high school and college games.
Requires media companies that license rights to non-football, non-basketball college sports to actually broadcast those games within a year or lose the rights back to the schools.
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.