Senators unveil ‘Protect College Sports Act’ as calls for reform grow

A bipartisan group of Senators have introduced legislation that would pave the way for the NCAA to create new rules around key issues like the transfer portal, television rights and eligibility requirements for major college sports programs.

The “Protect College Sports Act” would grant the NCAA limited antitrust protection shielding it from litigation around name, image and likeness (NIL) deals; student athlete-agent rules; student athlete medical coverage, as well as health and safety standards.

The bill would also regulate transfer portal and eligibility rules, prohibited compensation and cap-evasion provisions, allow the NCAA to revamp its recruitment and tampering rules and let individual conferences pool their media rights as more games move to streaming platforms and off traditional broadcast.

“College sports are at a breaking point. Fans can see their favorite teams being hollowed out by transfer chaos, fake NIL bidding wars, eligibility lawsuits, and a system that allows the richest programs to keep........

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