Since 2021, the rules governing college athletics, and particularly name, image, and likeness (NIL), have been shaped less by a single national policy than by a patchwork of state laws, NCAA rule changes, and court decisions. In the absence of congressional action, courts have effectively set the boundaries of permissible compensation, transfers, eligibility, and enforcement, often one challenge at a time.
On September 28, 2026, after nearly six hours of debate and consideration of seven floor amendments, the U.S. Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act of 2026 (S.4668, the PCSA), taking the first major (bipartisan) step toward establishing a federal NIL framework.[1] Unlike the SCORE Act (H.R. 4312), which stalled in the House, this was the first time either chamber of Congress had approved sweeping federal legislation governing college athletics.[2]
The PCSA’s passage is in response to the uncertainty arising from the In re College Athlete NIL Litigation (the House Settlement), persistent and successful enforcement challenges, a patchwork of state NIL laws, and broader questions facing the NCAA. If passed in its current form by the U.S. House of Representatives, the PCSA will ostensibly change that dynamic by replacing the fragmented, litigation-driven system with a uniform federal framework.
Undermining the PCSA’s passage, however, is the fact that the House of Representatives is recessed until November 9, 2026 — after the November 3, 2026, midterm elections — with Republican leaders already stating that the chamber does not plan to return before the elections to take up the PCSA. The House must pass the PCSA in the same form[3] before it can be sent to President Trump for his signature.
If the bill is not enacted before the new Congress is sworn in on January 3, 2027, it will expire.
The Protect College Sports Act of 2026
Revenue Sharing
One of the most significant developments in the NIL landscape since the House Settlement is the dramatic increase in how much schools can spend directly on student-athletes. Under the PCSA, as passed by the Senate on September 28, 2026, institutions would now be able to spend up to approximately $48 million annually — more than double the original House Settlement baseline — when accounting for the combined revenue sharing cap, the $22.5 million retention fund for returning athletes, and the additional $5 million allocation for non-revenue-generating sports. This represents a fundamental shift in the economic relationship between schools and student-athletes, moving from a system where direct institutional payments were prohibited to one where they are not only permitted but subject to a comprehensive federal regulatory framework.
The House Settlement imposed a “revenue sharing cap” that allows institutions to pay student-athletes directly, starting at $20.5 million in 2025, reaching $21.58 million in 2026, and growing each year for the 10-year settlement period.[4] The Senate-passed PCSA now codifies this cap and provides a limited antitrust exemption to prevent the type of antitrust challenges that led courts to strike down NCAA compensation limits.[5] The institution must be in full compliance with the PCSA for this exemption to apply.
To prevent institutions from evading the “cap,” an amendment was introduced September 22, 2026, that would expand the “revenue sharing cap” to include “associated entities,” including school sponsors, multimedia rights partners, and NIL collectives. While that amendment did not receive a vote and was not adopted, the Cruz-Cantwell “substitute” (introduced on September 17, 2026, and adopted on September 24, 2026) already incorporates the House Settlement’s definition of “associated entity,” counts associated-entity deals toward a “hard” “revenue sharing cap,” and requires multimedia rights holders, sponsors, apparel companies, and vendors to certify that their NIL deals are legitimate.[6]
If the House Settlement expires or terminates, the PCSA provides that the revenue-sharing cap will automatically continue, to be recalculated every three years at 22% of Average Shared Revenue, using the most recent Membership Financial Reporting System information available. The PCSA also provides for 4% annual increases between recalculation years.
Notably, and referenced above, the PCSA would allow institutions to spend an additional $22.5 million above the “revenue sharing cap” to retain their current student-athletes who have spent at least one full competitive season at the institution. Schools can also spend an additional $5 million each year to retain non-revenue-generating sports, including Olympic and women’s sports.
NIL Rights and Disclosures
The PCSA’s regulation of third-party NIL agreements resembles, but extends beyond, the framework established through the House Settlement and implemented by the College Sports Commission (CSC). Under the settlement-derived rules, reportable NIL agreements involving entities or individuals associated with a student-athlete’s institution must serve a valid business purpose and provide compensation within a reasonable range. The PCSA applies comparable standards more broadly, requiring covered third-party NIL compensation to serve a valid business purpose and to be commensurate with compensation paid to non-student-athletes of similar profile, reputation, or notability.
The PCSA prohibits institutions, conferences, or intercollegiate athletic associations from restricting student-athletes from entering NIL agreements, earning NIL compensation, or retaining an agent for NIL purposes. The Senate-passed bill also bars compensating prospective student-athletes before enrollment, except for reasonable costs of attending a development camp or program that is also open to non-prospects.
Like the existing House Settlement framework, the PCSA requires student-athletes to disclose NIL agreements exceeding $600 within five days of entering into the NIL agreement or, to the extent not reported after signing, no later than 30 days of receiving compensation exceeding $600. Disclosures must include the terms, amount, and source of the deal. Division I institutions must report anonymized NIL data annually to populate a mandatory, publicly accessible database that student-athletes and their agents can use to estimate fair market value for NIL agreements. Institutions and conferences must also disclose to the relevant intercollegiate athletic association all amounts over $600 received from a foreign adversary, state-owned enterprise, or sovereign wealth fund.
Agent Regulation
Although largely unenforced, the Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act (SPARTA) regulates student-athlete agents. The PCSA, which would amend SPARTA, requires student-athlete agents to register with a state and charge student-athletes a fee of no more than 5% of an endorsement contract — significantly less than what student-athletes report paying today. Under the PCSA, agents are prohibited from engaging in deceptive conduct or entering an agency contract with a student-athlete for a term longer than their intercollegiate eligibility. Student-athletes have a private right of action against abusive or fraudulent agents or those who violate the PCSA.
Media Rights
The PCSA authorizes schools and conferences to voluntarily form a joint entity (a “covered entity”) that would pool their media rights and negotiate with broadcasters on their behalf. This covered entity and its member schools would receive a federal antitrust exemption, shielding the arrangement from legal challenges that would otherwise prevent competitors from jointly selling broadcast rights.
However, complete compliance with the PCSA is necessary for this antitrust protection to apply. These requirements include:
- At least 75% of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institutions must elect to join the entity;
- At least 10 student-athletes (current or within the preceding 10 years) with voting power on revenue distribution and voting-threshold decisions must be designated;
- Adequate funding of a medical and injury fund before making distributions;
- Abide by the PCSA revenue allocation formula:
- Guarantee that every school receives more money than its best year since academic year 2021–22 through 2024–25;
- Distribute at least 15% of remaining revenue equally among FBS members from the 2024–25 season; and
- Distribute the remaining revenue to member institutions based on their contribution to the collective media rights revenue that academic year; and
- Preserve current levels of coverage and use “reasonable efforts” to promote and distribute media rights for non-revenue generating sports, including women’s and Olympic sports.
The PCSA also aims to protect each school’s[7] home market, requiring at least one free local broadcast option to ensure that fans are not priced out by national deals. The PCSA also preserves traditional rivalry games and existing contracts, excluding media rights for the NCAA basketball tournament and College Football Playoff from the covered entity through 2032.
The PCSA also includes a “use it or lose it” rule for media rights in sports other than football and basketball, identified as “Media Rights Utilization Requirement for College Sports Other Than Football and Basketball.” It is designed to prevent a distributor from acquiring rights to Olympic, women’s, and other non-football/non-basketball sports and then leaving those rights unused. The rule requires that if a distributor buys or licenses media rights in sports other than football and/or basketball, the distributor must “affirmatively use” the rights by making the games “reasonably available to the public”[8] within one year of the effective date of the agreement under which the rights were conveyed. If the distributor does not use those rights within the one-year period, the seller must notify the distributor of the non-use. If the rights still go unused 180 days after the notice, they go back to the seller, which can resell them without breaching the original agreement. This rule attempts to discourage distributors from buying rights to women’s, Olympic, and other non-revenue generating sports and never airing them.
Conference Restrictions
As schools have increasingly left longstanding conferences for larger, more lucrative leagues, repeated realignment has fueled the growth of “super conferences” while weakening smaller conferences through the loss of prominent members, media value, and competitive stability. As written, the PCSA seeks to curb that trend by prohibiting or sharply limiting further expansion by the largest football conferences.
The restriction applies to any conference that derives most of its revenue from football media rights and has reported more than $700 million in revenue on its fiscal year tax return since 2025. A conference meeting that description cannot merge with or acquire the assets or media rights of another top conference, or a “covered institution,” if the deal would give it control of 75% or more of all Football Bowl Subdivision schools. Practically, the PCSA prevents any single super-conference from absorbing so many programs that it dominates the entire FBS.
The meaning of a “covered institution” depends on the timing in relation to when the PCSA takes effect. During the first six years after the law takes effect, a school qualifies as a “covered institution” if it played FBS football as a member of a $700+ million conference at any point in the prior three years. That backward-looking window prevents a conference from skirting the rules by targeting a school that recently left a rival league.
After that six-year transition period, the test narrows. A school is protected only if it is a current member of a $700+ million conference as of the day before the deal closes. The three-year look-back falls away, and only present-day membership matters.
Covered conferences also cannot acquire the assets or media rights of a non-covered institution if doing so would grow the conference beyond 20 institutions.[9] In addition, a school switching between power conferences must first compete as an independent for three academic years, with that waiting period disappearing six years after enactment.[10]
Separately, the PCSA prohibits any entity from merging with, acquiring, or consolidating the assets or media rights of one or more covered institutions for the purpose of creating a new conference or intercollegiate athletic association. For purposes of this separate restriction, “covered institution” instead means a school that has competed in football as a member of a covered conference at least once in the preceding five years.
Together, these provisions are designed to limit further conference consolidation among the four major conferences, each of which has exceeded the $700 million revenue threshold.[11]
Transfers, Recruiting & Eligibility
Under the current system, student-athletes can transfer and compete immediately at their new school with virtually no restrictions. That is the result of a series of court challenges to the NCAA’s eligibility rules and NIL recruiting ban in Ohio, et al. v. NCAA and Tennessee v. NCAA, respectively, that effectively ended the NCAA’s sit-out requirements, as we have previously written.
The PCSA would significantly tighten these rules. The senate-passed bill provides a student-athlete with one “free” transfer, enabling them to move to another four-year school without losing or delaying their eligibility. However, a second transfer would require the athlete sit out for the first full academic year at their new school before competing again. Exceptions apply for circumstances beyond the athlete’s control, such as the discontinuation of the student-athlete’s sport, departure of their head coach, sexual assault or harassment by someone associated with their school, or pursuit of a graduate degree.
Coupled with the retention fund in the PCSA’s revenue-sharing framework, the bill creates a dual incentive for roster stability: athletes face a penalty for leaving and a financial reason to stay.
The bill also codifies a five-year eligibility clock, which begins at the earlier of the academic year following the student-athlete’s 19th birthday or the date of initial full-time enrollment. That clock may be tolled for pregnancy, religious mission, active-duty military service, or serious athletic injury or medical condition. These limits on participation are immune from antitrust scrutiny so long as there is compliance with the PCSA.
The PCSA authorizes intercollegiate athletic associations to enforce recruiting and tampering rules that restrict communications regarding recruitment with student-athletes enrolled at or committed to another institution except during a designated window no less than two weeks and no more than five weeks at the end of the competitive season for the sport. Agents must also certify compliance with recruiting and tampering rules. Athletes who qualify for a penalty-free transfer exception[12] may opt in to receive recruiting communications outside the normal windows. Associations may bar contact with any student-athlete or prospective student-athlete who has not affirmatively opted in to receive recruiting communications and may prohibit inducing transfer or enrollment through compensation offered in violation of these contact rules.
Beyond transfer rules, the PCSA includes a non-binding policy statement that higher education institutions participating in intercollegiate athletics should prioritize domestic students for grant-in-aid and roster spots on varsity teams. However, the Senate-passed bill is silent as to NIL opportunities (or lack thereof) for international students.
Women’s & Olympic Sports Preservation
Notably, the PCSA does not address whether revenue share cap dollars must be “proportionally divided” between male and female student-athletes to comply with Title IX. Instead, the bill simply includes a Title IX savings clause stating that nothing in the legislation overrides or modifies the applicability of Title IX.
The PCSA also includes a whistleblower provision protecting student-athletes and others from retaliation for reporting suspected violations of Title IX or the PCSA. Mirroring some and transcending other provisions of Title IX, the PCSA requires comparable standards for medical care, lodging, meals, rest, transportation, publicity and promotion, and athletic facilities for championship events or tournaments across similarly situated men’s and women’s athletic programs.[13]
Under the PCSA, athletic associations are barred from cutting minimum sports and roster sizes. “Larger” institutions — i.e., those with over $80 million in revenue — must maintain at least their 2024–25 levels of grant-in-aid opportunities and roster spots for non-revenue-generating sports, including women’s and Olympic programs, subject to narrow hardship waivers.
Additional Athlete Protections
The PCSA also offers academic protections including prohibiting an employee or volunteer of an athletic department of an institution from pressuring a student-athlete to select or not select a course or academic major, retaliating against a student-athlete for choosing a course or academic major, or preventing a student-athlete from securing employment, internships, student group membership, or volunteer engagements unless it interferes with mandatory academic or athletic commitments.
Athletic associations must track countable athletic-related hours to ensure academic progress. The PCSA also provides scholarship protections; a student-athlete’s scholarship may not be revoked, reduced, or conditioned for athletic performance, injury or illness, or roster management decisions. Further, former Division I student-athletes within the last 10 years who received grant-in-aid can return to their institution to complete their undergraduate degree so long as their scholarship was not reduced, revoked, or conditioned on a violation of the institution’s code of conduct applicable to all students.
The PCSA also provides student-athletes with medical coverage and mandates adherence to specific medical protocols, including providing medical staff, not coaches, with final return-to-play decisions.
HBCU Sports Media and Connectivity Program
The PCSA proposes a competitive federal grant program designed to help Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) modernize their broadcasting infrastructure and improve local journalism for student learning. To carry out this initiative, $180 million would be appropriated for each fiscal year from 2027 through 2032.
Conclusion
The PCSA represents Congress’ most comprehensive effort to replace the fragmented, court-driven framework governing college sports with a uniform federal system, doubling the amount of money schools can spend to recruit and retain their student-athletes. If enacted, the above provisions would materially reshape the current college-sports landscape by reducing the influence of differing state laws and case-by-case judicial rulings, granting schools and athletic associations limited antitrust protections, imposing consistent rules on student-athletes, institutions, conferences, agents, and NIL collectives, and significantly altering the ability of and incentives for student-athletes to transfer schools every year.
Despite its bipartisan Senate support, however, the PCSA appears unlikely to become law in its current form. The House remains in recess until November 9, 2026, leaving a narrow post-election window to consider the 180-page bill, and any House amendment would require further Senate action. Unless both chambers pass identical text and the president signs the bill before the 119th Congress ends on January 3, 2027, the legislation will expire and would need to be reintroduced in the next Congress.
Troutman Pepper Locke will continue monitoring the PCSA for updates as the PCSA remains pending before the 119th Congress.
[1] Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) led the bipartisan effort, with Senators Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) among the co-sponsors. The vote followed the Senate’s 74-24 procedural vote on September 15 and its September 24 adoption of Cruz’s substitute amendment, S. Amend. 6776, by a 77-23 vote.
[2] The SCORE Act (H.R. 4312) is currently stalled in the House, having never received a House floor vote with House Republican leaders pulling it from the floor twice.
[3] House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has already stated that the bill will not pass “as-is,” as there are “differences between the House and the Senate” with amendments that will focus on allowing schools to govern themselves.
[4] https://www.collegesportscommission.org/revenue-sharing.
[5] See, e.g., Pavia v. NCAA, 760 F. Supp. 3d 527 (M.D. Tenn. 2024); Robinson v. NCAA, No. 1:25-cv-75 (N.D. W.Va.); Wisne v. NCAA, No. 1:26-cv-03063 (D. Colo.).
[6] The September 22 amendment was not among the amendments voted on September 28, 2026 (Baldwin, No. 6828, agreed to 96-1; Scott, No. 6830, and Moody-Blumenthal, No. 6831, adopted by voice vote; Paul, No. 6758, Kennedy, No. 6760, and Booker, Nos. 6805 and 6835, rejected), as the substitute amendment was adopted and included in the base text of the bill prior to the Senate’s vote.
[7] Schools that offer football and basketball.
[8] Section 207 of the PCSA (“Media Rights Utilization Requirement for College Sports Other Than Football and Basketball”) does not explicitly define what platforms, number of events, or audience reach would satisfy “reasonably available.”
[9] The Moody-Blumenthal amendment raised that cap from 19 to 20.
[10] This restriction does not include/apply to Notre Dame.
[11] https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/50001346/protect-college-sports-act-truths-myths-congress.
[12] Sport discontinuation, coach departure, sexual assault by a person associated with their institution, or pursuit of graduate school.
[13] Compare to the list of program areas used to determine compliance with Title IX, https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/civil-rights-laws/federal-register-notices-and-regulations/policy-interpretation-title-ix-and-intercollegiate-athletics.