A key player in crafting and pushing bipartisan legislation aimed at building guardrails around college sports through the Senate said last week outreach to House members had begun. But it is unclear whether President Donald Trump will help reconcile differences as he focuses on the midterms and other priorities.
The Senate on Sept. 28 passed the measure 77-22, running up the score with a bipartisan final tally for the “Protect College Sports Act.” The legislation would establish the nation’s first federal regulatory structure for college athletics, creating national rules governing name, image and likeness (NIL) deal-making and compensation. Among its major provisions, the bill proposes nationwide standards for NIL agreements, establishes guidelines for schools making direct payments to athletes and grants targeted antitrust protections to certain college sports-governing organizations.
