College sports may have found a way to build something that looks a lot like the framework of a collective-bargaining agreement without actually bargaining with the athletes. To be clear, the Protect College Sports Act is not a collective-bargaining agreement. But consider the subjects now being addressed through federal legislation and the broader restructuring of college athletics: compensation, NIL, transfers, eligibility, agent fees, health benefits, scholarships, recruiting, roster management and revenue sharing. Those are not small administrative issues. They are fundamental questions about the economic relationship between athletes and the institutions they represent. And that leads me to a question I cannot get away from: Who is bargaining for the college athlete?

The question has changed

I have been thinking about this transformation for several years. My doctoral research at USC examined how NIL legislation was affecting college choice among student athletes. In 2024, I self-published “Game Changer: NIL and the Emergence of the Professional Student-Athlete.” I used the word professional intentionally. At the time, I was focused primarily on the athlete.

Today, I think the transformation is much larger.

Maybe we aren’t simply witnessing the emergence of the professional student athlete. Maybe we are witnessing the professionalization of the entire college sports ecosystem. The Senate’s passage of the Protect College Sports Act makes that question increasingly difficult to ignore. The legislation now moves to the House and is not yet law.

The bill attempts to establish national rules around some of the most consequential issues in college athletics, including NIL, transfers and eligibility. It also provides the NCAA and its members certain antitrust protections connected to the new regulatory structure. That may........

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