The Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act on Monday, September 28, 2026, by 77 votes to 22 — the first time either chamber of Congress has approved a comprehensive set of rules for college athletics since the courts dismantled the NCAA's amateurism regime.
The bill, S.4668, was written by Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who chairs the Commerce Committee, and Senator Maria Cantwell, the Washington Democrat who is its ranking member. "Today is a monumental day for college athletics," Cruz said, arguing the Senate had done "what many said was impossible."
What the bill would change
The legislation codifies athletes' right to earn money from their name, image and likeness — the "NIL" arrangements that have reorganized recruiting since 2021 — and then puts boundaries around the market that grew up around them.
Among its provisions:
- a limited antitrust exemption for the NCAA, shielding its rules from the lawsuits that struck down the old ones;
- a 5% cap on what agents may take from an athlete's NIL compensation;
- a restored five-year eligibility window and new limits on transfers;
- authority for conferences to pool media rights;
- a cap of 20 schools per conference, with any school leaving one power conference for another required to compete as an independent for three years;
- mandatory health and safety standards, and protections for women's and Olympic sports — the latter set to expire after nine years for large athletic departments and four years for midsize ones.
The bill arrived with heavy institutional backing. The Commerce Committee said it is supported by 32 conferences, more than 380 colleges, the major professional leagues and the US Olympic committee. President Trump had publicly pressed Congress to act the day the Senate voted.
Who is against it
The opposition is not organized around party lines. Labor groups, athlete organizations and the NAACP came out against the bill, on the argument that it constrains athletes while consolidating the power of the institutions that employ them.
Senator Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, said the chamber had produced "a bill that's going to protect the wealth" while leaving the burdens with the players. Sam Ehrlich, a legal scholar who studies college sports, called it "The Protect the NCAA Act," arguing it restores the authority of the body whose rules athletes spent a decade beating in court.
Notably, the bill does not make athletes employees — the question underneath most of the litigation of the past five years.
Why it stops here for now
Passage in the Senate does not put the bill near law. The House of Representatives is in recess until after the midterm elections on November 3, so the earliest it can be taken up is the lame-duck session.
The realignment provisions are the likeliest trouble. Requiring a school to sit out three years as an independent after switching power conferences lands directly on programs in Florida, the Carolinas and California, and House members from those states will be voting weeks after facing their own electorates.
Reporting from the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and NPR.
