As the United States sinks deeper into division at house and overseas, the U.S. Senate convened Wednesday to safeguard a nook of the nationwide edifice that—judged by the identical financial forces driving the nation’s fragmentation—some would say is doing comparably exceptional: college sports.
At a second when Congress could also be close to a historic low in reputation and performance, members of the Senate Commerce Committee opened their listening to by celebrating the uncommon bipartisan accomplishment of merely introducing the Protect College Sports Act of 2026. The invoice—co-sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.)—seeks to curb the infinite lawsuits which have arisen from a multibillion-dollar business constructed upon a long time of Title IX inequities and antitrust violations.
“This is a moment where we can come together,” Cruz, the committee chairman, mentioned in his opening assertion. “(Cantwell) and I have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours, negotiating this bill. … I have thought at multiple times we were never going to get there.”
The College Sports Act goals to codify and prolong the revenue-sharing cap established underneath the House v. NCAA settlement, provide a restricted antitrust exemption for the NCAA over athlete eligibility and transfers, authorize mechanisms for media-rights pooling and supply a spread of protections for athletes.
That the bipartisan invoice was finally drafted “gives me some hope and optimism that we can actually get this done,” Cruz mentioned. “And by the way, I think the country will be shocked if they see Congress actually get something done.”
Cantwell, the committee’s Democratic rating member, echoed the sentiment.
“My colleagues know there are probably 25 things Sen. Cruz and I don’t agree on, and that is just in this committee,” Cantwell mentioned. “So saying that, it is an accomplishment for him and I to agree this…We agree that college sports is in crisis, and the system is unsustainable.”
Wednesday’s listening to unfolded in opposition to the backdrop of escalating hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, the place a tenuous ceasefire settlement seems on the verge of unraveling. The battle, now in its fourth month regardless of by no means receiving formal congressional authorization, has fueled inflation, rattled international markets and highlighted Congress’ diminished oversight position.
Cruz acknowledged the awkwardness of convening a listening to on the subject of faculty sports activities whereas bigger international crises erupt. Yet each he and Cantwell tried to argue that their attentions weren’t misplaced.
“If we do nothing, the current trajectory will concentrate more power in fewer hands and widen the gap between the richest programs and everyone else,” Cruz mentioned. “In a few years, if we do nothing, we could lose dozens of historic football and basketball programs not to mention thousands of Olympic sports at colleges dependent on revenue from football and basketball.”
Cantwell, for her half, positioned the crucial of the faculty sports activities system throughout the great-power competitors, describing it as a strategic asset in America’s instructional arm’s race with China.
“Congress unfortunately helped created the legal environment in which college sports now operates,” Cruz mentioned, citing federal sports activities broadcast rights and antitrust legal guidelines, and mentioned it was federal legislators’ obligation now to enact new legal guidelines that will return it to stability.
Supporters of the invoice have described it as essentially the most significant development in Congress’ six-year effort to legislate intercollegiate athletics, which has produced greater than 40 totally different items of laws, none of which have reached a flooring vote. This follows a sequence of antitrust victories in opposition to the NCAA and energy conferences which have upended a system lengthy inhibiting gamers’ skills to totally profit from the wealth their skills generated.
A letter endorsing the invoice launched Monday by Saving College Sports—the 501(c)4 group led by Republican mega-donor and Texas Tech mega-booster Cody Campbell—and signed by dozens of signatures of Division I college presidents, regents and trustees, hailed the measure as a matter of nationwide significance.
“The United States remains the only country in the world whereby a young adult can attain a world class education and compete at the highest level of athletics,” the letter said.
However, the Protect College Sports Act has additionally acquired ample pushback, together with from participant advocacy groups that rapidly mobilized in opposition to a invoice they contend is undermining developments in school athlete rights.
Late Tuesday, the Big Ten Conference and SEC—the NCAA’s two richest and strongest leagues—formally joined the opposition with a joint assertion. They mentioned the laws, “as drafted,” fails to resolve “critical issues” in school sports activities whereas making adjustments to the House settlement that might finally lead to fewer athletes receiving revenue-share funds.
“Rather than reducing litigation, the bill likely expands it without offering clear alternatives for dispute resolution,” the conferences complained.
Former Alabama soccer coach Nick Saban, who was appointed by Donald Trump final yr to function co-chair of a presidential fee on school sports activities, appeared as one in every of 4 witnesses Wednesday. He was joined by Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, whose surname, translating from Italian as “water drinker,” was repeatedly mispronounced by senators.
“This is a major milestone to have this bipartisan support to do something for college sports and I think this bill is an enormous step in the right direction,” mentioned Bevacqua (beh-VAH-kwah), who beforehand served as president and chairman of NBC Sports earlier than taking on the Fighting Irish.
West Virginia president emeritus Gordon Gee, Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould and Utah soccer participant Lance Holtzclaw additionally testified. Gee spoke self-deprecatingly in help of the invoice, describing his profession’s “unstable employment pattern” that noticed him function 5 college presidents over 45 years—West Virginia, Ohio State, Vanderbilt, Brown and the University of Colorado System. “Most of the time I left voluntarily,” he mentioned, “[although] a couple of times, I left ahead of the sheriff.”
The 82-year-old acknowledged that he is likely to be “the poster boy” for college leaders whose prior selections—or lack thereof—have contributed to what he described was the present “existential crisis.”
“We have agreed to outrageous [coaching] contracts, reduced the academic mission of being a student-athlete, abrogated too much power to athletic directors and conference commissioners—some, who seem more aligned with media companies than their own universities,” Gee mentioned.
Gee was lately deposed in a category motion lawsuit filed by former athletes and different college students in opposition to Ohio State over the rampant sexual abuse dedicated by former college and OSU workforce physician Richard Strauss.
Although he didn’t reference the case, Gee conceded he is likely to be the “leader of the pack” when it comes to school presidents who’ve imperiled school sports activities. Still, he argued that his expertise had given him the mandatory perspective—and authority—to converse to how the system ought to be protected, and why it issues to accomplish that.
“I can hear the chorus now…’Well, this is just a fuzzy-headed academic failing to understand the realities of college athletics,’” Gee mentioned. “Well, I want you to know that I plead not guilty…I have traveled the world, I have been to so many institutions, this is a unique part of the American culture. And it is really so unique that nobody else has been able to replicate it.”