The PCSA has passed only the Senate. It is not law; it imposes no compliance obligations and provides no protections today. This alert describes the bill as passed as of September 28, 2026, and will be updated in the coming months as there are further developments. Stay tuned for further updates.

Senate Action

On the evening of Monday, September 28, 2026, the U.S. Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act (PCSA) by a vote of 77–22,¹ following numerous amendments and votes.² It is the first comprehensive federal college athletics legislation to pass either chamber of Congress.

This vote comes after nearly a decade of court challenges,³ the passage of conflicting state laws,⁴ and a general concern for the sustainability of the collegiate sports model in the current legal landscape.

Principal Provisions

The PCSA would create the first uniform federal framework for college athletics, preempting conflicting state NIL laws and supplementing the court-driven rules that have governed the field since 2021. The bill would give the House settlement's revenue-share cap a federal statutory basis and add a retention fund. It would regulate NIL agreements and sports agents and set national eligibility and transfer rules. It would also guarantee student-athletes' scholarship protections and medical coverage and give them a formal voice in NCAA and conference governance. To protect the broader collegiate model, it would require institutions to preserve scholarships and roster spots in women's, Olympic, and other non-revenue-generating sports. In exchange, it would give the NCAA, conferences, and institutions limited antitrust protection for enforcing these rules and a pathway to pool their media rights. The bill takes no position on whether student-athletes are employees, and it expressly preserves Title IX.

Antitrust Protections

Because the NCAA and its conferences are associations of competing institutions, their rules on athlete eligibility, compensation, and recruiting are treated as agreements among competitors under Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Courts review them under the rule of reason. In NCAA v. Alston,⁵ the Supreme Court unanimously held that NCAA limits on education-related benefits violated the antitrust laws. That decision accelerated the shift to NIL compensation and strengthened the pending class actions that were resolved by the roughly $2.8 billion House settlement in 2025. However, the settlement has not ended the litigation. Current suits challenge how the revenue-share cap and the College Sports Commission’s NIL review are being implemented, as well as the NCAA’s eligibility rules, including its new age-based model. That leaves the NCAA and its members uncertain whether they can enforce any rule without facing an antitrust suit.

Section 118 of the PCSA offers a measure of stability by providing targeted, limited antitrust protection to an intercollegiate athletic association (such as the NCAA), a conference, or an institution that enforces or complies with specified provisions of the PCSA. These are: Section 103 (Agent Registry Requirements for Intercollegiate Athletic Associations); Section 110 (Rules Governing Certain Mid-Season Coaching Transitions); Section 112 (Transfer Protections); Section 113 (Eligibility to Participate in Intercollegiate Sports); Section 114 (Prohibited Compensation and Agreements); Section 115 (Congressional Approval of Continuation of Revenue Share Cap and Retention Fund); Section 117 (Recruitment and Tampering); specified subsections of Section 101 (Name, Image, and Likeness Protections); and championship or tournament selection rules as described in Section 118(a)(7). The protection applies only where the association has adopted rules implementing these provisions.⁶ This condition ties the safe harbor to the athlete protections Congress has prescribed, so institutions can follow federal standards without facing antitrust exposure for doing so.

Section 202 builds upon that foundation by amending the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961. It exempts from the antitrust laws any agreements among institutions and conferences to pool and sell their media rights through a single national entity, subject to conditions.⁷ This gives institutions a lawful path to the collective media arrangements that help fund athletic programs and athlete compensation.

Revenue Share Cap and Retention Fund

The PCSA codifies the House settlement's revenue share cap. The cap equals 22% of the average shared revenue of institutions in the then-Power Five conferences, drawn from media rights, ticket sales, and sponsorships, and it increases annually.⁸ For the 2026–27 academic year, the cap is approximately $21.6 million per institution.⁹

The PCSA also creates a new retention fund. Institutions may exceed the cap by up to $22.5 million per year to retain student-athletes who have completed at least one full competitive season at the institution. Because of that limit, the fund cannot be used to recruit new athletes. Institutions may exceed the cap by up to an additional $5 million in proportion to the NIL compensation they provide to student-athletes in women's, Olympic, and other non-revenue generating sports. The retention fund expires nine years after enactment and is available only to institutions that meet academic benchmarks set by their intercollegiate athletic association or conference.¹⁰

Every NIL agreement with a student-athlete must serve a valid business purpose, except an agreement with the institution itself. Agreements with associated entities (such as collectives), with conferences, and with institutional or conference employees or volunteers face an additional requirement. They must pay compensation consistent with what third parties pay comparable individuals who are not student-athletes.¹¹

Employment Status and Title IX

Section 122 of the PCSA states that the title “is neutral on, and does nothing to alter, employee or non-employee status for student athletes.” That language leaves undisturbed both pending NLRB proceedings and the litigation following the Third Circuit's decision in Johnson v. NCAA. Johnson held that student-athletes may be considered employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act if they meet certain criteria and allowed their wage claims to proceed.¹² The neutrality provision is a deliberate departure from the SCORE Act, which would bar treating student-athletes as employees based on their athletic participation or compensation.¹³

The PCSA also preserves Title IX. Section 127, an express savings clause, provides that nothing in the title shall be construed to “override, modify, or amend the applicability of title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.”¹⁴ Section 125 requires large institutions (those who generated at least $80 million in athletics revenue the prior year) and mid-sized institutions (those who generated at least $50 million in athletics revenue the prior year) to maintain total scholarships and roster spots in women's, Olympic, and other non-revenue generating sports at 2024-25 levels for a set period. Institutions may still change which sports they sponsor.¹⁵ Finally, Section 109 requires the NCAA and conferences, which generally are not themselves subject to Title IX,¹⁶ to "maintain comparable standards for medical care, lodging, meals, rest, transportation, publicity and promotion, and, if applicable, athletic facilities for championship events or tournaments, across similarly situated men's and women's athletic programs."¹⁷

Several questions remain open. These include how Title IX will apply to revenue sharing and how it will interact with the freeze on women's sports scholarships and rosters. In a recent Legal Sidebar, Congressional Research Service legislative attorneys questioned how the bill would interact with Title IX and observed that Title IX's application to revenue sharing is a novel legal question.¹⁸

Other Notable Provisions

The PCSA also includes:

Agent Regulation (§§ 102–103): In amending the Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act, the bill requires agents to register with a state, certify that registration to the NCAA, and sign an agency contract before representing an athlete. Fees are capped at 5% of an endorsement contract, which must be written and cannot extend past a student-athlete’s eligibility. Athletes may sue; pre-dispute arbitration agreements and joint-action waivers cannot be enforced against them. The NCAA must keep a public agent database and may fine or decertify agents.

Eligibility and Transfers (§§ 112–113): Student-athletes get five calendar years to compete, consistent with the age-based eligibility model the NCAA adopted in June 2026.¹⁹ One transfer to another institution is penalty-free; a second costs a year of eligibility, with exceptions for a cut sport, a head coach's departure, graduate study, or sexual assault or harassment.

Scholarships and Medical Care (§§ 105(c), 106): A student-athlete’s financial aid cannot be revoked, reduced, or conditioned based on performance, injury, illness, or roster management. Eligible former Division I athletes may return to finish their degrees. Division I schools must cover sport-related out-of-pocket medical costs while athletes compete, and for five years after their last competition. The NCAA must also maintain a fund of at least $60 million. The fund grows by $5 million after any year it runs out, up to $100 million.

Governance (§§ 108, 111, 126): The NCAA must fund an independent, confidential student-athlete ombudsman office. At least one-third of the seats and voting power on governing boards and rulemaking committees must go to current student-athletes or former student-athletes who graduated in the past 10 years. Conferences with under $500 million in revenue must be adequately represented.

Recruitment and HBCU Media (§128; tit. III, §§ 302, 307): The PCSA declares a national policy that schools should prioritize domestic students in awarding athletic opportunities, including scholarships and roster spots. It also authorizes $180 million annually (FY2027-2032) for competitive grants to HBCUs for broadband, media, and live sports broadcast infrastructure.

Conference Consolidation (§ 205): A football-driven conference with more than $700 million in revenue cannot merge with, or acquire the assets or media rights of, another such conference or one of its member schools if, as a result, its membership would be less than 75% of FBS institutions.²⁰ Nor can it acquire another school's assets or media rights if doing so would bring its membership above 20. No entity may acquire these schools to form a new conference or association.

What Happens Next? Anticipated Hurdles in the House

The bill now moves to the U.S. House of Representatives, which is in recess until November 9, 2026. Speaker Mike Johnson has indicated the House will take up the bill after the midterm elections,²¹ although Senator Ted Cruz, one of the bill's lead sponsors, has urged the Speaker to bring the House back to pass it before November.²² President Trump has been a vocal proponent of the PCSA, and the Administration previously issued a Statement of Administration Policy supporting passage, which states that the President’s advisors would recommend that he sign the bill.²³

The House has until the 119th Congress ends on January 3, 2027, to pass the PCSA; otherwise, the bill dies, and any new legislation must be reintroduced. Although the bill passed the Senate with strong bipartisan support, it will likely face a tougher road in the House, where leadership pulled its own college sports bill, the SCORE Act, from the floor three times.²⁴

Recommended Near-Term Steps

As written, the PCSA would primarily affect Division I institutions and conferences, particularly those that have opted into the House settlement and share revenue with student-athletes. Several provisions, however, would also reach Division II and Division III institutions.

No immediate action is required. Institutions should monitor the PCSA’s progress in the House. In the meantime, Division I institutions may wish to:

• Review Title IX compliance, particularly the allocation of revenue sharing and NIL compensation;
• Strengthen monitoring of compliance with existing NCAA rules;
• Review personnel contracts and student-athlete financial aid agreements; and
• Enhance agent registration processes.