By: Paul Mrochinski
The Changing World of College Athletics
In the last decade, the world of college athletics has been flipped upside down. For the first time in history, student-athletes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) are not only able to profit from their name, image, and likeness (“NIL”),[1] but can receive direct income from their school in the form of revenue-share compensation.[2] Couple this with a seemingly endless supply of legal battles regarding student-athlete eligibility that has led the NCAA to adopt a new “Age-Based Eligibility Model” and it becomes clear that amateur sports function much differently than ever before.[3]
To prevent these changes, the NCAA and its member conferences “have spent years and millions of dollars lobbying for a federal law to help create and enforce rules.”[4] The Protect College Sports Act (“PCSA”), a bipartisan bill the Senate passed on September 28, 2026, aims to do just that.[5] While the PCSA has received extensive public advocacy from Nick Saban, Pat McAfee, and even co-sponsor Senator Ted Cruz on ESPN’s College GameDay,[6] the bill has its critics. This article will discuss what the PCSA entails and whether it actually lives up to its name.
Impacts of the PCSA
Perhaps the best place to start is the biggest change to college athletics: student-athlete compensation. The PCSA takes the revenue-share framework established by the settlement in House v. NCAA and enshrines it into federal law,[7] allowing universities to provide around $21 million in direct compensation to their student-athletes.[8] Additionally, the PCSA allows schools to exceed this amount via a $22.5 million “retention fund” used to retain student-athletes who have spent at least one season at the institution, with an additional $5 million fund for student-athletes participating in non-revenue-generating sports at the institution, including women’s sports and Olympic sports.[9] These funds should serve as additional ways schools can provide for their student-athletes, and may lead to an increase in student-athletes remaining at their current institution rather than transferring away to the highest bidder.
While these amounts seem to generally benefit student-athlete compensation, it is important to note that NIL compensation deals with school “associated entities” are also included under this cap. “Associated entities” include collectives associated with a specific institution and other entities that create or identify “name, image, and likeness opportunities solely for a particular institution’s student athletes.”[10] While this should work to even the playing field in a financial sense by closing potential loopholes, it also places a stricter cap on how much student-athletes can be paid, limiting their overall earning potential.[11] This is especially impactful as the PCSA explicitly states that it “is neutral on, and does nothing to alter, employee or non-employee status for student athletes.”[12] As such, if student-athletes are unhappy with how they are being treated, it is difficult for them to negotiate better terms with their institutions because they do not have collective bargaining rights. While there is plenty of language in the PCSA on student-athlete compensation and caps on their earnings, there is nothing regarding a cap on the compensation of head coaches. However, representative agents of student-athletes are capped at five percent of the value of a NIL deal and must be registered as professional sports agents with a league, players’ association, or the state where the agent operates.[13]
Additionally, the PCSA would prohibit the unlimited student-athlete transfer system that has developed and evolved in recent years.[14] Under the PCSA, a student-athlete would be permitted one free transfer from a four-year institution to another “without losing or delaying eligibility to participate in intercollegiate sports,” with exceptions for the discontinuation of their sport at their current institution, the departure of their head coach, sexual assault of the student-athlete by someone associated with the institution, or the pursuit of a graduate degree.[15] If a student-athlete transfers more than once and an exception does not apply, they will lose a year of eligibility during the academic year following the transfer.[16] This change presumably will lead to student-athlete retention, working hand in hand with the retention fund to encourage student-athletes to remain at their institution and follow a more streamlined athletic and academic development program.
One of those transfer exceptions is for a head coach departure, and the PCSA places a set of restrictions on the timeline for departure of NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) coaches to another institution. Dubbed the “Lane Kiffin Rule” after the Ole Miss head coach departed for LSU during the 2025 season before Ole Miss began its College Football Playoff run,[17] the measure bars any football personnel at an FBS institution from assuming head-coaching duties at another such institution mid-season.[18] Failing to comply with this rule results in the departing coach being ineligible to serve as head football coach at the hiring institution for the entire following season.[19]
Regarding athletic conferences, the PCSA amends the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 by adding a provision that places restrictions on any conference generating $700 million annually in revenue, with the primary source of revenue stemming from intercollegiate football.[20] Such conferences (including the “Power Four” conferences: the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Twelve Conference, Big Ten Conference, and Southeastern Conference) are prohibited from exceeding twenty member institutions.[21] Additionally, any Power Four institution seeking to move to another Power Four conference during the first six years of the PCSA’s implementation must first spend three years as an independent.[22] This is an incredibly strong disincentive to institutions attempting to leave or form a “super-conference,” as many schools do not have the financial strength to remain profitable without benefiting from conference media deal payments. However, conferences do have the option to pool all of their TV rights into one deal, provided that seventy-five percent of FBS teams are included in the deal.[23]
Finally, to aid in carrying out these provisions, the PCSA grants the NCAA, its conferences, and institutions an exemption from federal antitrust laws.[24]
Looking Forward
While the PCSA certainly has some issues to iron out, the bill serves as a collaborative attempt between the NCAA and policymakers to stabilize the rapidly changing world of college athletics. The PCSA now moves to the House to undergo another round of debate and deliberation, but this is the closest that federal law has come to redefining the rules surrounding amateur competition in the NIL era.
[1] Anthony M. Dalimonte, NIL Timeline: The Events that Transformed College Sports, Foster Swift (Apr. 21, 2023), https://www.fosterswift.com/newsroom/publications/timeline-NIL-cases-transform-college-sports (on file with Tennessee Law Review) (explaining that following the Supreme Court’s 2021 decision in NCAA v. Alston, the NCAA’s Interim NIL Policy allowed student-athletes to benefit financially from their NIL).
[2] Dan Murphy, Judge OK’s $2.8B settlement, paving way for colleges to pay athletes, ESPN (June 7, 2025), https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/45467505/judge-grants-final-approval-house-v-ncaa-settlement (on file with Tennessee Law Review).
[3] The NCAA’s 5-Year Eligibility Rule Change, IMG Academy (June 30, 2026), https://www.imgacademy.com/news/ncaa-5-year-eligibility-rule-change (on file with Tennessee Law Review).
[4] Ralph D. Russo & Justin Williams, The Senate Just Passed a Historic Bill to Federally Regulate College Sports. What Happens Now?, The Athletic (Sept. 29, 2026), https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7639847/2026/09/28/protect-college-sports-act-passes-senate-house-vote/ (on file with Tennessee Law Review).
[5] Id.
[6] Matt Yoder, ‘College GameDay’ Interviews Ted Cruz in Latest Political Advocacy, Awful Announcing (Sept. 12, 2026), https://awfulannouncing.com/politics/college-gameday-interviews-ted-cruz-in-latest-political-advocacy.html (on file with Tennessee Law Review).
[7] Protect College Sports Act of 2026, S. 4668, 119th Cong. § 115 (2026).
[8] Chris Vannini, What’s Actually in the Senate Bill That’s Supposed to Stop the Madness in College Sports?, The Athletic (Sept. 28, 2026), https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7493125/2026/09/28/protect-college-sports-act-summary/ (on file with Tennessee Law Review).
[9] S. 4668, § 114.
[10] Id.
[11] Vannini, supra note 8.
[12] S. 4668, § 122.
[13] Id. at § 9, 102.
[14] Vannini, supra note 8.
[15] S. 4668, § 112.
[16] Id.
[17] Vannini, supra note 8.
[18] S. 4668, § 110.
[19] Id.
[20] Id. at § 205.
[21] Id.; Vannini, supra note 8.
[22] Vannini, supra note 8.
[23] S. 4668, § 205.
[24] Id. at § 118.
