The Senate voted 77-22 for a national framework on college athlete pay, transfers, and eligibility, a bipartisan push President Trump says will save both the sport and the schools.
CNBC reported the chamber passed the Protect College Sports Act on Monday as one of its last major acts before leaving town ahead of the 2026 midterms. The bill now heads to the House.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate commerce committee, led the measure. It aims to end years of free-for-all rules that followed court decisions forcing the NCAA to drop its old ban on athlete pay and loosen transfers.
Reuters noted the bipartisan bill moves next to the House, and if it clears that chamber it would still need President Trump’s signature.
For roughly five years, top football and basketball players have bounced between schools and landed million-dollar name, image, and likeness deals with little national structure. Lawmakers held hearings and floated multiple bills. This one finally cleared the Senate with a decisive margin.
Cruz called it a “monumental day” for college sports. He said the Senate “voted to protect the hundreds of thousands of student athletes currently competing in college sports, the millions who will follow in their footsteps, and every college sports fan who wants to preserve this great American tradition for generations to come.”
On the Senate floor ahead of the vote, Cruz argued the bill protects underdogs so every team still has a shot to develop and compete. The Washington Examiner reported he said stories of smaller programs reaching the Final Four only happen “if those teams still exist.”
President Trump weighed in on Truth Social, calling passage a “really big deal.” He said, “It will not only save college sports, it will save the colleges themselves.”
Fox News reported Trump urged both chambers to finish the job and send the bill to his desk. “I’m urging the House and the Senate to come together, bipartisan if possible and it looks like they have done, to send the bill to my desk and I will sign it,” he said. He added that without action, “We’re in Never-Never Land.”
That kind of clear executive pressure fits a pattern of the administration moving on concrete priorities, from election integrity rulings to personnel decisions that lock in key roles.
The legislation would draft athletes’ NIL rights into federal law. It would also give the NCAA, conferences, and schools a limited antitrust exemption so they can enforce basic competitive rules without endless lawsuits.
The New York Post reported the measure raises the direct pay cap schools can offer athletes to about $49 million and grants the NCAA that limited exemption while setting national standards on pay, transfers, and eligibility.
Other provisions described in the reporting include allowing players one penalty-free transfer, capping eligibility at five years, and expanding the revenue-sharing pool schools can use to pay athletes directly. That pool includes up to $5 million that could flow to women’s sports and Olympic sports.
Cruz told colleagues college sports is “at a breaking point” and that the bill would “restore order to a system being torn apart by too few rules and too much litigation.” He added, “College sports is worth saving, for the athletes, for the schools, for the fans, and for America.”
The Big Ten and Southeastern Conference issued a joint statement backing the bill “as currently drafted” after talks with Cruz, Cantwell, and Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.). That conference support arrived after negotiations that built on a 2025 NCAA settlement.
RealClearPolitics described the Senate passage as a major milestone for federal regulation of college athletics and confirmed the bill now heads to the House.
Not everyone cheered. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) spoke against the approach earlier this month at a virtual press conference. “What this bill does at its core is to protect a system of exploitation,” Murphy said. “This bill protects the billions of dollars that coaches and sports industry executives are making over the suppression of compensation for some of the most highly valued athletes in the world.”
He also claimed the bill “seeks to give an unprecedented antitrust exemption to an industry that is violating the law every single day.”
The Congressional Black Caucus, with more than 50 members across both chambers, opposed the measure. A similar House bill called the SCORE Act had already been pulled after CBC resistance. In a statement tied to the aftermath of a Supreme Court decision that limited parts of the Voting Rights Act, the caucus said it could not support legislation that would benefit “major athletic institutions that continue to remain silent while Black voting rights and Black political power are being systematically dismantled across the South.”
The NAACP was also listed among outside groups opposing the Senate bill. Linking a sports-rules package to Southern voting fights is a political choice. Voters watching the chaos in transfers and pay can judge whether that connection serves athletes or simply moves the goalposts.
Trump’s own recent record on personnel and security posts, including making Marco Rubio’s national security role permanent, shows an administration willing to lock in decisions rather than leave systems in limbo.
Cruz said Monday he has been in contact with House Speaker Mike Johnson and believes Johnson will call the House back to vote. An anonymous House source familiar with the matter told reporters a return to take up the college sports bill is “highly unlikely.”
Those two readouts sit in direct tension. With the Senate heading out of town later this week before the midterms, the article timeline points to a possible lame-duck window after the Nov. 3 election if the House waits.
A prior SCORE Act already stalled under caucus pressure. The Protect College Sports Act now carries broader conference backing and a 77-22 Senate margin, yet the same House obstacles remain.
Trump has made clear he wants the bill on his desk. That matches other administration moves that prioritize enforceable rules over open-ended processes, whether on refugee admissions caps or border and election enforcement.
College sports produce billions, fills stadiums, and still sells itself as a pathway for young athletes. Five years of litigation-driven rule changes produced free agency without a shared national floor. The Senate just voted to put one in place.
Whether the House treats that vote as a mandate or another delay will tell fans if the chaos ends or simply moves to the next hearing room. Order is not exploitation. It is the condition that lets underdog teams, women’s programs, and Olympic sports keep a seat at the table while the highest-paid stars cash in under clear rules.
Washington finally drew a line on the free-for-all. Now the House has to decide if college sports gets a stable future or more of the same mess.