Former University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban testifies on the “Protect College Sports Act” before the Senate Commerce Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., June 3, 2026.(Evan Vucci/Reuters)
Since the House v. NCAA settlement enabling colleges to directly pay their student-athletes took effect last July, there has long been a sense of doom in the discourse surrounding collegiate athletics: that it’s lost a certain magic in the chaos of litigation, ballooning program spending, disparate NIL rules across the nation, and absurdly high turnover of coaches and athletes, all under the lingering question of what, exactly, are student-athletes entitled to?
Stakeholders have turned to federal leadership as a last resort for some stability. Senators Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) have responded with new legislation aimed at ...
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