Committee Hears Powerful Testimony Bolstering the Need to Fix College Sports Crisis, Stop Cuts to Women’s & Olympic Sports & Protect Athletes

Committee Hears Powerful Testimony Bolstering the Need to Fix College Sports Crisis, Stop Cuts to Women's & Olympic Sports & Protect Athletes

Protect College Sports Act reflects Cantwell key pillars: ensuring federal rights and protections for athletes and securing the future of women's and Olympic sports

WASHINGTON, D.C. - At a landmark hearing on the Protect College Sports Act, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee heard powerful testimony on the worsening crisis facing college athletics, including the future of women's and Olympic sports, athletes' rights, and the financial sustainability of the entire collegiate sports system. Former University of Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban, Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould, University of Notre Dame Director of Athletics Pete Bevacqua, West Virginia University President Emeritus Gordon Gee and Lance Holtzclaw, a student athlete with the University of Utah, underscored the urgency to act on the bill's key measures to preserve athletic opportunities for all athletes and stabilize the future of college athletics.

"We agree today that college athletics are in crisis, and we agree that the system is broken and unsustainable," said U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the committee. "Universities, athletes, and fans are pleading with us to do something about this issue. Schools are cutting women's and Olympic programs, and they are dropping scholarships…erasing roster slots to try to keep pace with out-of-control spending in football and basketball."

College sports today are at a crossroads. The Grant House vs. NCAA settlement opened the door for universities to share revenue directly with athletes to compensate them for their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). This settlement is vindication for athletes who have fought for compensation. However, the result of the settlement can widen the gaps between the richest schools and everyone else. Without federal guardrails in place, schools will pull resources from non-revenue sports to stay competitive in football and basketball.

Sen. Cantwell highlighted the risk of keeping the status quo on our Olympic athlete pipeline: "I believe the failure of us to act here will make us responsible for the outcome of future Olympic teams if we don't come up with a solution."

The Protect College Sports Act provides, for the first time, a federal framework for athletes' rights, including the right to earn NIL compensation. This legislation would also amend the Sports Broadcasting Act to allow institutions to pool their media rights to maximize value and capture more revenue.

"And it brings in real revenue," said Sen. Cantwell. "Experts believe that this could bring in an additional $4 to 8 billion in media rights revenue, money that we would like to dedicate to women and Olympic sports. The solution here is to grow the pie, not shrink it, and give schools more resources."

Sen Cantwell asked student athlete Lance Holtzclaw about the impact constant coaching changes has on student athletes.

"[P]eople don't realize that in this arms race of money and coaches transferring, that the students -- I mean, how can you learn any system, or coach or synchronicity if you have three different coaches in three years?" asked Sen. Cantwell.

"It's extremely important to how the careers of these young men and women go out and how they're developed in their time in college athletics," said Mr. Holtzclaw. "There's so much that goes on with life development, that goes on with your education, that goes on with your life experiences, and I feel like that leadership portion being strong in a system and in a program, is extremely important. So, when pieces move around a lot, it can alter that sometimes."

Sen. Cantwell zeroed in on the critical question of whether the leaders entrusted with protecting college athletics had instead steered it toward its current crisis.

Sen. Cantwell: "Mr. Gee. Has the current system failed?"

Gordon Gee: "Absolutely, that's the reason we're here today. I mean, we would not be having this hearing if we had a system that was working."

Sen. Cantwell: "And so what do we -- what do you think that -- on this notion of why university presidents didn't understand that ADs and conferences were taking us down a different direction, that was going to be so painful."

Gordon Gee: "I know most of those presidents, they're really smart people, they're wonderful people, half of them have worked for me, but we need to have an opportunity to really have those presidential discussions, because this is so simple. We have a revenue problem, either we grow the pie or we destroy everything that we're about. It's pretty damn simple."

During the more than two-hour hearing, witnesses addressed a number of key issues addressed in the legislation:

Where College Sports Stands Today

Saban: "When the system becomes whoever raises the most money gets the best players, then we are no longer talking about college athletics as millions of fans and I have known it."

Bevacqua: "Ours is an educational initiative in crisis with schools decreasing opportunities for student-athletes, bad-faith actors with predatory practices harming both student-athletes and institutions and the inability for common sense rules to be set and followed without risk of endless litigation. It is imperative that Congress takes action imminently."

Gee: "The end result is that we now have an unsustainable system which will destroy American college athletics, unless we take bold steps. The NCAA and the conferences lost in the courts because we failed to allow student athletes to function as true students with great talents, who earned the right to monetize their talents."

Gould: "Because many of the most significant challenges facing college sports cannot realistically be resolved in a single point in time, the Act's Commission on the Future of College Athletics is a thoughtful and critical framework which we must use to evaluate the deeper, structural reforms that will require sustained analysis, stakeholder engagement, and broad consensus."

Holtzclaw: "I have experienced the impact of NIL, the transfer portal, conference realignment, evolving eligibility rules, and the many changes shaping modern college athletics. These issues are often discussed through the lens of policy, economics, and governance, but behind every decision are real students balancing academics, athletics, personal development, and preparation for life."

Women's and Olympic Sports

Gould: "[W]hile women's sports and Olympic sports are not explicitly called out in every provision of this bill, what this bill provides is more certainty than we have today. So if you're a university president trying to make decisions about funding for an athletic department, if you're an athletic director, if you're a conference commissioner who's constantly getting reduced distributions because of litigation, this creates more certainty. And to me, more certainty allows the leaders in our industry to make the appropriate decisions to fund broad-based programs."

Saban: "Another important part of this bill is that it does not only focus on football. Football and men's basketball generate most of a department's revenue, but college athletics is bigger than those two sports. Women's sports, Olympic sports, and other non-revenue sports create opportunities for thousands of young men and women. Those opportunities matter. They are part of what makes college athletics different from professional sports."

Bevacqua: "Protecting the incredible value of the student-athlete experience beyond revenue-generating sports, with a particular emphasis on the continued growth and sustained health of our women's and Olympic sports, is central to our mission at Notre Dame. These programs are the bedrock of the collegiate model, providing thousands of young men and women with opportunities to compete at the highest levels while earning a world-class education. If we continue to go down the path of no legislative action, Olympic and women's sports around the United States will be at risk both this year and for years to come."

Protecting Athletes' Rights

Saban: "The scholarship and medical protections in this bill are also important. If a young person gives his or her body to a university program, then that young person should not be discarded because of an injury, a roster decision, or athletic performance. Scholarships should mean something. Medical coverage should mean something. Health and safety standards should mean something. Independent medical judgment should not be overridden by competitive pressure. That is not just an athlete issue. That is a values issue."

Gee: "With this legislation, we will be able to bring a level of common sense and discipline to the college athletic enterprise. We can restore basic rules to govern the system while continuing to allow student athletes to earn their fair share of the revenue they help create."

The Future

Saban: "Congress does not need to micromanage college athletics. But Congress does need to fix the mess in the courts and create a national framework so the people inside college sports can enforce fair rules. This is a serious bipartisan effort to bring order to a system that badly needs fixing. I don't think this is bipartisan, I think this is something that should be nonpartisan. It's that important in terms of college athletics. In terms of the future for young people."

Bevacqua: "The efforts you have made to restore sanity to the transfer portal and eligibility rules, protect the scholarships of student-athletes, ensure medical insurance is commonplace for these students, remove "bad actors" from college athletics and reform SPARTA represent just a few of the many concepts outlined in this bill that are necessary for the future of college athletics. We applaud your efforts in regard to these important matters as they relate to all student-athletes, regardless of their sport or the revenue their sport might earn, and their fans throughout our nation and, quite frankly, the world."

Gee: "Athletics plays an incredibly important part in the culture and spirit of the American university. It is a critical way to tell our story. There is immense pride in winning from rivalries to championships, and I have even seen states go into mourning when their hometown heroes lose. It is preserving this spirit of competition and pride that I believe is what is one the key attributes that differentiates American universities from those in other countries. And that is the reason I am so grateful to this committee and our government for stepping up."

Gould: "The window for meaningful reform is short and the cost of inaction is real. Congress has an opportunity to modernize college athletics in ways that protect its traditions, strengthen its institutions and recognize the rights and protections that student-athletes have always deserved. The Pac-12 is committed to being part of that work."

Holtzclaw: "College athletics has provided me with incredible opportunities, relationships, and experiences that have helped elevate my life in tremendous ways. I believe strongly in preserving those opportunities for future generations while continuing to improve a system that serves the student-athletes at its center."

Sen. Cantwell is leading the effort to reform college sports and ensure tomorrow's athletes have the same opportunities as today's competitors do. She and Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, joined by U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Eric Schmitt (R-MO), introduced the Protect College Sports Act of 2026 to protect athletes, preserve true competition in college sports and maximize collegiate athletic opportunities while bringing desperately needed stability to the college sports system. The Act creates new rules and new tools to stabilize college sports, including codifying athletes' rights and protections in law, supporting women's and Olympic sports, and amending the Sports Broadcasting Act (SBA) to expand revenue for all schools. The text of the Protect College Sports Act is HERE. A section by section is HERE.

In March, Sen. Cantwell released a bipartisan discussion draft of the College Sports Competitive Act with Sen. Schmitt that would amend the SBA to allow colleges to pool their media rights in negotiations.

In December of last year, she introduced the Helping Undergraduate Students Thrive with Long-Term Earnings (HUSTLE Act) with U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) so that college athletes earning NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) money can protect more of it for their post-playing lives. In October, Sen. Cantwell joined former college and professional athletes and U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) in warning that the SCORE Act would roll-back hard fought NIL rights and health protections, leave athletes vulnerable to unscrupulous agents, short-change women's and Olympic sports, and shut the door on collective bargaining rights.

Last September, Sen. Cantwell, joined by co-sponsors Sens. Booker and Blumenthal, introduced the Student Athlete Fairness and Enforcement (SAFE) Act to codify athletes' rights and protections in law, expand revenue for all schools, support women's and Olympic sports, and bring much-needed stability to the college sports system. Sen. Cantwell also released a report showing how skyrocketing media rights payments have exacerbated a massive financial gap between traditional power conferences, especially the new Power 2-the SEC and Big Ten-and everyone else.

Video of Sen. Cantwell's opening remarks at yesterday's hearing is HERE, video of her Q&A is HERE and the complete transcript is HERE.