Cantwell Hails Historic Opportunity to Codify Athletes’ Rights in Protect College Sports Act

Cantwell Hails Historic Opportunity to Codify Athletes' Rights in Protect College Sports Act

"We can recognize [these rights], enshrine them today, and make sure that these athletes are protected forever."; Protect College Sports Act creates historic federal rights and protections for student athletes and secures the future of women's and Olympic sports; aims to rein in runaway spending on athletics that's harming colleges & students; Today, the Senate advanced the bill 77-22, picking up 4 votes -- 3 Democrats and 1 Republican

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, urged her colleagues to support her bipartisan Protect College Sports Act, a historic opportunity to enshrine athletes' rights to name, image, and likeness (NIL) revenue - as well as important health and safety protections - into federal law.

"We can recognize [these rights], enshrine them today, and make sure that these athletes are protected forever, including the rights to not have their contracts screwed with, their rights to not have their school override them, the rights to have any amount of money that some business wants to pay them, as long as it is for a valid business purpose," said Sen. Cantwell said in a speech on the Senate floor.

Sen. Cantwell also outlined the importance of stabilizing college sports. "I want these rules put in place because sports is about any given Saturday," she said. "It is not about whether you have a billionaire in your backyard. It is about whether you can coach and recruit and develop and maintain and have academic performance and have fairness … and have everybody compete and keep the ecosystem in place. But that fairness does not exist today without this bill."

Sen. Cantwell noted that the runaway spending on athletics threatens opportunities in women's and Olympic sports. "I am not going to have women's and Olympic sports undermined by this system. In fact, there is a poll that shows that 87% of the public ... agree, women's and Olympic sports need to be preserved," she said. "We are not going to let runaway boosters who basically want no rules and runaway agents who want to prey on high school kids decide what's going to happen here."

• The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has written in support of the bill.
• Student Athlete Advisory Committee Chairs from Divisions I, II, and III, representing the 500,000 student-athletes in the college sports ecosystem, have sent letters of support in favor of passing the Protect College Sports Act.
• Team USA Athletes' Commission sent a letter of support signed by over a hundred athletes.
• 19 student-athlete commissions from conferences and individual schools have sent letters supporting the passage of the Protect College Sports Act.

Sen. Cantwell spoke ahead of a procedural vote. The Senate advanced the bill 77-22, moving it closer to final passage.

Video of Sen. Cantwell's floor speech is HERE; a transcript is HERE.

Sen. Cantwell is leading the effort to reform college sports and ensure tomorrow's athletes have the same opportunities as today's competitors. The Protect College Sports Act of 2026, which she introduced alongside Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chair Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), sets new rules and provides new tools to stabilize college sports, including codifying athletes' rights to earn compensation for their NIL, enshrining scholarship and healthcare protections in law, reining in predatory agents, expanding revenue for all schools, and preserving and protecting the future of women's and Olympic sports. On Tuesday, the Senate voted 74-24 to begin debate on the bill.

On Tuesday, Sen. Cantwell's office also released a snapshot report detailing how the unsustainable growth in spending on college sports is amplifying financial pressures on colleges and universities. That report can be read in full HERE.

Monday, Sen. Cantwell joined current college athletes, coaches, and senators from both parties for a press conference at the U.S. Capitol to speak in support of the Protect College Sports Act. That press conference, which also included Gonzaga University head men's basketball coach Mark Few, can be watched in full HERE.

The Protect College Sports Act's new guaranteed protections for student athletes include:

• Granting student athletes a new federal right to earn compensation for their NIL and replaces the patchwork of state laws with a strong national law.
• Capping agent fees at 5%.
• Guaranteeing scholarships for ten years after eligibility, so athletes can complete their degrees, and ensuring student athletes cannot lose their scholarship because of injury or a bad game.
• Requiring Division I schools to cover out-of-pocket medical costs for athletic injuries or illness for current student athletes and five years post-eligibility.
• Preventing women's and Olympic sports from being cut by requiring schools to maintain a minimum number of sports.
• Giving athletes a private right of action to enforce provisions of the bill, including their NIL rights, agent protections, health and safety standards, scholarship protections, and medical coverage requirements.