Senate Passes Protect College Sports Act 77-22

Senate Passes Protect College Sports Act 77-22

Landmark bill enshrines into federal law rights and health and safety protections for college athletes, protects athletes from predatory agents, & secures the future of women's and Olympic sports; Legislation moves to House for consideration

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, celebrated the overwhelming, bipartisan Senate vote to pass the Protect College Sports Act.

"There are several things in this bill that are really important to enshrine into federal law at this time. First and foremost, the federal right to NIL [Name, Image, and Likeness]," Sen. Cantwell said in a speech on the Senate floor ahead of the vote.

"But compensation on revenue sharing is probably the most important thing we could possibly enshrine in federal law today. This is [Congress] saying, for the first time, that an athlete gets a percentage of the media rights, the ticket sales, and the sponsorship."

She continued: "We also believe in a health and safety standard in federal law, one that protects the athletes beyond the way the law works today and gives them the right to sue and hold these people accountable for any kind of health and safety violations [...] And then medical coverage for five years post eligibility, and capping agents' [fees] at 5%."

"We need to stop stealing money out of college [and] university institutions for education, for tuition, for professors, and putting it into an arms race on sports," Sen. Cantwell said. "It is putting a pin in the problems to stabilize the loss of women's and Olympic [sports] and to create the opportunity to discuss the larger structure moving forward. That is why I think we have so much support."

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

The final vote was 77-22. The bill will now move to the House of Representatives for consideration. The next scheduled House legislative session begins Monday, November 9.

Sen. Cantwell is leading the effort to reform college sports. 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 health and safety protections in federal law, reining in predatory agents, expanding revenue for all schools, and preserving and protecting the future of women's and Olympic sports.

On September 15, Sen. Cantwell's office 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.

On September 14, 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 replacing the patchwork of state laws with a strong national law.
• Capping agent fees at 5% to clamp down on predatory agents.
• 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.

For more details, see a summary of the bill HERE.

A list of amendments that the Senate adopted ahead of the bill's passage this evening is available HERE.