WASHINGTON — The United States Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act on Monday, moving one of the most significant pieces of college athletics legislation in years one step closer to becoming law.
The bill passed 77-22 and now heads to the House of Representatives. It is not yet law.
The bipartisan legislation, led by Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell, would establish national standards for several of the biggest issues that have transformed college sports in recent years, including NIL compensation, athlete transfers, eligibility, and enforcement.
For players, one of the most noticeable changes would come through the transfer portal. Athletes would be guaranteed one transfer without losing eligibility. A second transfer would generally require the athlete to sit out a season, although exceptions would exist for situations including graduate study, a head coaching change, elimination of a sport, and sexual harassment.
The legislation would also establish a five-year eligibility framework and prevent football coaches from leaving during the season to begin working for another FBS program.
NIL and direct athlete compensation are another major piece of the bill. The legislation would preserve athletes’ ability to earn NIL money while creating a national framework for contracts and compensation. It would also establish a $22.5 million retention fund for schools, with as much as another $5 million available when schools make qualifying investments in women’s and Olympic sports.
For programs such as Ohio State and Cincinnati, the potential impact would be significant. Recruiting and roster construction have increasingly revolved around transfers, NIL, and player retention. A federal standard would replace some of the uncertainty created by varying state laws, conference policies, NCAA rules, and court decisions.
The bill would also provide protections for scholarships, healthcare, women’s sports, and Olympic sports while giving the NCAA greater authority to oversee compliance with the new national rules.
The legislation has gone through several revisions during the year. The Big Ten and SEC initially opposed an earlier version but later supported the revised proposal after changes involving revenue sharing, conference movement, media rights, and other provisions.
Nothing changes immediately for Ohio State, Cincinnati, or any other college program. The House must still approve the legislation before it could reach the president’s desk, and the chamber is out of session until November.
But after years in which college athletics has been reshaped largely through lawsuits, NCAA rule changes, conference decisions, and state legislation, Congress is now much closer to establishing a national set of rules.
