Pass the Protect College Sports Act

College sports are at a crossroads. The uniquely American and very popular national system of athletic competition between college student athletes, which has flourished for more than a century, is currently under assault by almost 150 federal and state lawsuits challenging various NCAA rules that maintain it.

Congress should enact the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act to protect the current commercial-educational model of intercollegiate sports, which differs from the commercial-professional model for pro sports.

Each major professional league has privately owned for-profit member clubs that produce the highest level of U.S. competition in a single sport (for example, the NBA and WNBA; the NFL), whose players are unionized club employees.

In contrast, the NCAA has 1,075 nonprofit member four-year colleges and universities in three nationwide divisions and subdivisions, which have significantly varying levels of athletic competition and resources. NCAA schools produce 24 intercollegiate sports with more than 90 men’s, women’s, and coed divisional national championship competitions.

Unlike NBA, NFL and WNBA players, NCAA athletes are full-time undergraduate or graduate students who must satisfy minimum NCAA and institutional academic requirements to participate in intercollegiate sports.

During 2024-25, NCAA schools fielded approximately 20,000 teams providing 554,298 intercollegiate sports participation opportunities for female and male student athletes. Division I men’s basketball and FBS football historically are the only sports generating surplus revenues, which cross-subsidize the costs of producing other intercollegiate sports, including women’s and Olympic sports. Less than 3 percent of NCAA university athletic departments generate annual revenues exceeding their expenses; all are Division I FBS Power Four conference (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC) schools.

After college, less than 2 percent of NCAA intercollegiate athletes play their sport professionally.

Since the NCAA’s 1906 founding, more than 5 million men and women have played a wide variety of intercollegiate sports, providing each with the opportunity to earn a college degree. Historically, student athletes’ graduation rates are higher than the general student body at their respective educational institutions, but likely will decline if they continue transferring schools several times, as has occurred in recent years.

The Protect College Sports Act preserves the college sports commercial/educational model by providing that only a “student athlete” satisfying required academic standards and not a “professional athlete” is eligible to participate in intercollegiate athletics for a maximum of five years and generally must be 24 years of age or younger. It would maintain or increase student athlete graduation rates by generally permitting only one institutional transfer without losing or delaying eligibility to participate in intercollegiate sports.

The Protect College Sports Act provides important educational protections for student athletes by prohibiting athletic department pressure regarding their selection of courses or majors, or the reduction or revocation of an athletic scholarship because of athletic performance or injury, with a private right of action for violations. It requires Division I schools to continue providing their former student-athletes with financial educational assistance equal to the value of their individual athletic scholarships for 10 years after expiration of intercollegiate sports eligibility.

The Protect College Sports Act establishes a nationally uniform law permitting all intercollegiate athletes to earn compensation for the commercial use of their individual Name, Image, and Likeness rights and preempts the current hodgepodge of more than 30 conflicting state college laws. It requires disclosure of student-athlete compensation over $600 per year; prohibits non-university “pay-for-play” Name, Image and Likeness agreements with student-athletes that exceed the fair market value of a comparable non-college athlete product or service endorsement contract; and provides antitrust immunity for NCAA, conference, and schools’ enforcement of these requirements.

Pursuant to the House antitrust settlement and beginning in July 2025, NCAA Division I athletes may receive individualized payments from their respective universities, initially aggregating up to $20.5 million per school annually and increasing each year ($21.3 million for 2026-27) to an estimated $32.9 million per school cap in 2034-35.

The Protect College Sports Act legislatively approves the House annual revenue sharing cap (extending its duration with annual inflation adjustments), prohibits its circumvention, and immunizes its terms and enforcement from future antitrust challenge.

This proposed federal law permits a Division I university to exceed this general revenue sharing cap up to an additional $22.5 million per year to retain its own current intercollegiate athletes and an additional $5 million per year for its women’s, Olympic, and other non-revenue sports athletes.

In addition to protecting the college sports commercial/educational model, the Protect College Sports Act promotes on-field competitive balance by establishing nationally uniform college athlete eligibility and compensation rules; protects its integrity by permitting enforcement of college athlete sports gambling and doping prohibitions; and permits internal governance of intercollegiate athletics consistent with the legitimate objectives of higher education and national public interest.

The future of college athletics should not be uncertain because of conflicting state laws and judicial micromanaging. Congress should stabilize intercollegiate sports by enacting the Protect College Sports Act.

Matthew Mitten is professor of law and senior advisor at Marquette University Law School’s National Sports Law Institute.