Senators Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell unveiled bipartisan legislation Wednesday designed to restore fiscal discipline and institutional stability to college athletics, where unchecked name, image and likeness payments have created football rosters with $30 million payrolls and threatened the financial viability of smaller sports programs. The Protect College Sports Act would regulate player compensation, restrict transfers, and limit coaching movement while providing targeted antitrust protection to the NCAA and conferences.
The bill represents a significant intervention in a system Cruz and Cantwell described as chaotic, where thousands of athletes face program cuts and the entire collegiate sports infrastructure confronts existential financial pressure. "This is a stability bill, not just an NIL bill," Cruz told The Associated Press, emphasizing the legislation's focus on restoring order to an industry reshaped by market forces.
Restoring Predictability to the System
The legislation would limit athletes to one unrestricted transfer during their college careers and adopt a five-year eligibility period similar to what the NCAA appears ready to enact next month. These restrictions aim to reduce the instability created by the current transfer portal system, which has enabled rapid roster turnover and driven up costs for athletic departments.
Cantwell said the bill provides "better predictability" for an ecosystem where "thousands of athletes being cut, hundreds of programs being cut, the risk to the whole infrastructure was too high to not try to get better predictability." The measure includes guarantees for health insurance and scholarships, along with more stringent regulations for NIL deals from third parties and the agents who broker them.
The Lane Kiffin Rule
In response to disruptive midseason coaching changes, the bill would prohibit schools from hiring coaches away from competitors while their teams are still competing. The provision takes its name from Lane Kiffin's sudden move to LSU from rival Mississippi during the College Football Playoff last season. "It's not fair or right to poach a coach in the middle of the season while the team is still competing," Cruz said, noting the NFL already restricts such movement.
Limited Antitrust Protection
The bill would grant targeted antitrust exemption to the NCAA and the College Sports Commission in exchange for what Cruz called "public-facing protections" for athletes in ten areas. This represents a compromise between the competing SCORE and SAFE legislative proposals that have stalled in recent months. Meredith Page, chair of the NCAA Division I Student Athlete Advocacy Committee and former Radford volleyball player, called the bill "a phenomenal step" that "gives the ability for us to stabilize the field that is so, so unstable right now."
The legislation would also preempt the patchwork of state laws currently regulating NIL, creating uniform national standards that the NCAA has long sought.
Media Rights Restructuring
The bill would rework the Sports Broadcasting Act to allow conferences to pool their television rights, a move proponents believe could add billions of dollars to the system. However, the Southeastern and Big Ten Conferences dispute this conclusion. Leagues participating in such pooling would be required to dedicate a percentage of any revenue increase to women's and Olympic sports, which face elimination at many schools due to rising costs.
Commissioners from the Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences said they looked forward to reviewing details, with ACC's Jim Phillips expressing hope the bill could "build upon today's positive momentum."
Political Obstacles Remain
The bill takes what Cantwell described as a neutral stance on whether college athletes should be classified as employees, avoiding a provision that derailed the SCORE Act. That legislation was pulled from the House schedule last week after the Congressional Black Caucus and NAACP opposed it, and it faced virtually no chance of securing the 60 votes needed to break a Senate filibuster.
Mit Winter, a Missouri attorney specializing in sports law, questioned whether the sprawling proposal could pass as written. "There almost wouldn't be any reason from the school side or NCAA side to collectively bargain if this entire bill is enacted into law because it provides everything they would want on their side from collective bargaining," he said, noting the bill limits transfers, sets eligibility rules, and caps athlete compensation.
Cantwell said she and Cruz crafted the legislation "because he and I really do believe the college sports system is in a bit of chaos." The bill draws heavily from previous proposals, combining elements both senators believe can secure the 60 votes necessary for Senate passage.
Why This Matters:
The financial sustainability of college athletics hangs in the balance as schools confront escalating costs driven by unregulated NIL payments and roster instability. Without congressional intervention, smaller sports programs—many involving women and serving as the backbone of the U.S. Olympic pipeline—face elimination as athletic departments redirect resources to high-revenue sports with multimillion-dollar payrolls. The bill's attempt to impose fiscal discipline through transfer limits, compensation regulations, and coaching restrictions represents a test of whether government can restore market order without stifling legitimate competition. The antitrust exemption provisions raise questions about whether regulatory protection will entrench existing institutional power or create the stability needed for sustainable athletic programs. The measure's success or failure will determine whether colleges can maintain broad-based athletic opportunities or whether market pressures will consolidate resources among elite programs and revenue-generating sports.