The United States Senate voted 77-22 to pass Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) Protect College Sports Act after months of negotiations with other lawmakers.
The bill would establish nationwide rules governing college-athlete compensation, name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals, transfers, and eligibility, while giving the NCAA and its member schools limited antitrust protections to enforce those rules.
“This bill puts an end to the chaos plaguing college athletics,” Sen. Cruz said on the Senate floor ahead of the final vote. “The system we have today is not sustainable, plain and simple.”
It will also codify athletes’ rights to participate in revenue sharing and receive NIL compensation, provide medical and scholarship protections, limit athletes to one transfer, and establish a five-year eligibility window.
“It would be nice if college sports could somehow magically fix itself, but this is a matter of law, federal law, and only Congress can fix it,” Sen. Cruz said earlier this month.
“But popularity does not demonstrate that the system is healthy. It simply proves that the system is worth saving,” Sen. Cruz countered.
But the bill faced pushback from several Senators, including Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who argued that the legislation would protect an exploitative system by giving the NCAA, conferences and schools antitrust protections while suppressing compensation for athletes.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) also pushed back on the bill just hours before the chamber held its final vote. He said it was written without meaningful input from athletes, shields the NCAA from accountability and places the burden of enforcement on student-athletes.
“This is a bill not about student-athletes; it’s about wealthy coaches and wealthy institutions and an NCAA who has enjoyed unbridled power for decades as we watch discrimination and hardships,” Sen. Booker said on the Senate floor earlier this week.
“Finally the athletes were getting some power,” he said. “And this body rushes in to say we’re protecting college athletes. Well, that is not true.”
