S. 4668
Protect College Sports Act of 2026
In plain English: what this bill does
The Protect College Sports Act of 2026 would set national rules for college athletes' name, image, and likeness (NIL) payments, athlete welfare, college sports broadcasting, and HBCU media infrastructure. It would bar schools and groups from blocking athletes from earning money from their own name or image, require athletes and schools to report certain payments and deals, and cap school revenue-sharing with athletes at a set amount, with a temporary retention fund above that cap. It would also add health, safety, academic and transfer protections, let athletes sue for certain violations, give antitrust protection to many college sports rules, allow a joint TV-rights sales entity for college sports, and create a $180 million yearly grant program for HBCU broadcast and broadband upgrades.
Who this affects
- **Student athletes (current and prospective)**: may earn money from their name, image and likeness, must report deals over $600 to their school and athletic association, and gain new health, transfer, academic and grant-in-aid protections.
- **Schools (mainly NCAA Division I)**: may pay athletes for name, image and likeness within the revenue share cap, must file yearly reports on athlete payments and program finances, must provide medical coverage and health and safety measures, and must keep women's and Olympic sports at 2024–2025 levels.
- **Intercollegiate athletic associations and conferences**: must run an agent registry and a searchable fair-market-value database, set up an Office of the Student Athlete Ombudsman, reserve at least one-third of governing board seats for current or recent student athletes, and enforce the new rules.
- **Athlete agents**: must register with a state, certify compliance with association rules, may not charge fees above 5 percent of an endorsement deal, and may be decertified for violations.
Words to know
- **Revenue share cap**: the limit on how much a school may pay athletes directly, set by a court settlement and continued under this bill unless Congress acts.
- **Retention fund**: an extra amount a school may pay above the cap to keep athletes who have finished at least one season there.
- **Collective**: a group, such as a booster organization, that gives money to or for athletes or a school's athletic program.
- **Antitrust laws**: federal and state laws against business practices that limit competition, such as agreements to fix prices.
For example
Made-up numbers: A school's revenue share cap is $10,000,000 for the year, and it wants to pay $2,000,000 above that to keep a player through the retention fund. The bill allows up to $22,500,000 above the cap, so the school may pay the extra $2,000,000 because $2,000,000 is less than $22,500,000.
- Step one: Check the cap room: $10,000,000 + $2,000,000 = $12,000,000 in total.
- Step two: Compare the extra amount to the limit: $2,000,000 is less than $22,500,000.
- Step three: The payment is allowed under the retention fund for that year.
Written by AI from the bill's text below; it can be wrong. How it's written
Official summary
Written by the Congressional Research Service.
Protect College Sports Act of 2026
This bill establishes requirements for name, image, or likeness (NIL) agreements for college student athletes and provides a limited antitrust exemption for schools and conferences to pool and sell certain college sports media rights. The requirements address elements of the court-approved agreement to settle In re College Athlete NIL Litigation (i.e., House settlement).
First, the bill statutorily prohibits institutions, conferences, or interstate intercollegiate athletic associations (e.g., the National Collegiate Athletic Association [NCAA]) from restricting student athletes from entering NIL agreements (subject to specified limitations). Students must report to their institution NIL compensation greater than $600.
The bill requires agents to register with a state and caps agent endorsement contract fees at 5%.
The bill also provides student athletes with one transfer without losing athletic eligibility and restricts football personnel from becoming the head football coach at a different institution during the same season.
Further, the bill prohibits institutions, conferences, or specified entities acting for the benefit of an institution from providing athletes with compensation that circumvents the limit on sharing revenue with student athletes established under the House settlement. The bill also makes the limit permanent and provides for an annual inflation adjustment.
The bill generally prohibits Division I conferences from reducing the number of varsity or Olympic sports teams that a member institution must sponsor. Specifically, large institutions ($80 million or more in annual athletics revenue) must offer and maintain at least as many grant-in-aid opportunities and roster spots for sports that do not generate positive net revenue as the institution provided during academic year 2024-25. The bill provides for a waiver of this requirement under certain circumstances of financial hardship and the requirements expire nine years after the enactment of the bill.
Additionally, the bill establishes (subject to specified conditions) a limited antitrust exemption for institutions or conferences that form joint agreements to transfer their sports telecasting rights to a third party. Such an agreement requires participation from at least 75% of the institutions in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Text of the bill
I Protections of student athletes and fair competition
II Sports broadcasting
III HBCU Sports Media and Connectivity Program
Where this section came from
Not in the first version (Introduced in Senate, Jun 2).
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Sep 28, 2026 · Engrossed in Senate S.Amdt. 6779: To improve the bill. Official page › S.Amdt. 6777: To improve the bill. Official page › S.Amdt. 6776: In the nature of a substitute. Official page › S.Amdt. 6831: To modify the prohibition on certain conference mergers and acquisitions. Official page › S.Amdt. 6830: To require the disclosure of foreign financing of intercollegiate athletics. Official page › S.Amdt. 6828: To modify the provision relating to the relationship of this Act to existing law. Official page › On Cloture on the Motion to Proceed — Cloture on the Motion to Proceed Agreed to, 74–24 · Roll Call 235On the Motion to Proceed — Motion to Proceed Agreed to, 77–22 · Roll Call 236On the Cloture Motion — Cloture Motion Agreed to, 70–21 · Roll Call 240On the Amendment — Amendment Agreed to, 77–23 · Roll Call 242On the Cloture Motion — Cloture Motion Agreed to, 74–25 · Roll Call 243On the Amendment — Amendment Agreed to, 96–1 · Roll Call 245On the Amendment — Amendment Rejected, 1–94 · Roll Call 246On the Amendment — Amendment Rejected, 42–54 · Roll Call 247On the Amendment — Amendment Rejected, 49–50 · Roll Call 248On the Amendment — Amendment Rejected, 47–52 · Roll Call 249On Passage of the Bill — Bill Passed, 77–22 · Roll Call 250
(a) Permitted uses. Except as provided in subsection (c), an eligible entity that receives a grant under this title shall use the grant funds to carry out at least one of the following activities:
(1)
(A) Install, upgrade, or extend the life of—
(i) high-speed broadband internet infrastructure sufficient to support digital and technology-based learning, except that no funds may be used for broadband infrastructure deployment to any location that is already served by qualifying broadband service or is subject to enforceable deployment obligations, as determined by the Assistant Secretary;
(ii) campus-wide broadband networks, including adjacent infrastructure and 5G and future network generations; and
(iii) other broadband infrastructure that provides support for teaching, learning and research.
(B) Modernize, renovate, or retrofit campus facilities, including preserving facilities with historic significance, to facilitate projects under this paragraph.
(2)
(A) Construct, install, maintain, or facilitate—
(i) equipment or infrastructure used for training and education in digital media production and distribution facilities, including tools and equipment that support instruction in television or radio broadcasting on stations located on the campus of or affiliated with the eligible entity; and
(ii) facilities, equipment, or services for the studio of digital media production or production for television or radio broadcast stations located on the campus of or affiliated with the eligible entity.
(B) Support technology, broadcast engineering, and journalism instruction through existing courses and supervised training programs that are—
(i) operated by or affiliated with the eligible entity; and
(ii) used primarily for instructional and experiential learning purposes.
(3) Establish new, or improve existing, laboratories or research facilities relating to the fields of communications technology, broadcast engineering, media, journalism, and other disciplines, as determined by the Assistant Secretary in consultation with the Secretary.
(4) Construct, install, upgrade, or operate—
(A) media production facilities, including production control rooms, master control facilities, and mobile or remote production units, for the coverage of intercollegiate athletic events;
(B) cameras, replay, graphics, audio, and other production equipment, and transmission infrastructure, including fiber, satellite, and internet protocol transmission, sufficient to produce live coverage of intercollegiate athletic events at the technical standards of national and regional video programming distributors;
(C) streaming and digital distribution infrastructure enabling the eligible entity to distribute live coverage of intercollegiate athletic events directly to the public, including in the local market of the eligible entity; and
(D) programs that train students of the eligible entity in sports programming, including coverage, production, distribution, and all other aspects of media operations, integrated where practicable with the journalism and media programs of the entity.
(b) Additional resources. An eligible entity that receives a grant under this title may use the grant funds to—
(1) purchase or lease eligible equipment, excluding personal devices, for shared instructional and research use by students, faculty, and other designated instructional and research personnel of the eligible entity, provided that equipment is relevant to uses described in subsection (a);
(2) establish, expand, or operate information technology and network operations capacity, including hiring and training information technology personnel to support student learning;
(3) strengthen the cybersecurity posture of the networks and information systems of the eligible entity, including through network monitoring, endpoint protection, and cybersecurity workforce training to support student learning;
(4) provide digital skills and relevant occupational training to students;
(5) subscribe to broadband internet access service, for each eligible student through a single broadband connection that provides sufficient speed, reliability, and data capacity to support online learning for enrolled students of the eligible entity who individually demonstrate financial need through information submitted through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (commonly known as the FAFSA) and lack access to broadband for learning; or
(6) acquire and install research-related equipment and technology in the campus facilities of the eligible entity related to telecommunications, journalism, media, and cybersecurity.
(c) Prohibited uses. An eligible entity that receives a grant under this title may not use the grant funds for—
(1) payment of routine and predictable maintenance costs or minor repairs;
(2) the purchase or support of any communications equipment or service (as defined in section 9 of the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019 (47 U.S.C. 1608)) that poses a risk to national security;
(3) activities that are funded, in whole or in part, under part B of title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1060 et seq.), unless the Secretary approves such use;
(4) last-mile deployment of broadband service to a campus of an eligible entity—
(A) that already has access to broadband service at a download speed of not less than 1 gigabit per second at the eligible entity's primary network aggregation point; or
(B) where there is a legally enforceable obligation to deploy broadband service at the speed described in subparagraph (A); or
(5) technology whose primary purpose is fundraising or the conduct of ceremonial events.
(d) Encouraging partnerships. The Assistant Secretary and the Secretary shall encourage partnerships between eligible entities and public and private entities to—
(1) provide funding in addition to the grants provided under this title; and
(2) assist in carrying out the activities funded by grants awarded under this title.