If you happen to be a college-football fan and you watch the sport on any of the ubiquitous Disney-owned ABC-ESPN outlets, you are probably aware of a piece of congressional legislation called the Protect College Sports Act. Several of that network’s leading on-camera personalities, including Pat McAfee and especially former Alabama football coach Nick Saban, have been relentlessly promoting this bill. Saban also stars in an ad for the bill that runs constantly during football games. The legislation, and all the hype surrounding it, is part of a response to bewildering changes in college sports that have recently emerged following a series of federal court cases that blew up the power of the NCAA to deny athletes a significant share of the vast wealth they ever-increasingly create, which was previously shared by schools, coaches, conferences, and media companies. Subsequent litigation has led to a shaky and poorly regulated scheme wherein the NCAA can no longer enforce limits on player compensation or restrict players from transferring from one school to another virtually at will in search of more money or more playing opportunities. It’s a free market that conservative Republicans (and many in a white, male, conservative-skewing fan and........

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