The Senate has voted to give the NCAA and its member schools a limited antitrust exemption to set and enforce rules on athlete eligibility and transfers. The Protect College Sports Act passed Monday by a vote of 77-22, with each school allowed to directly pay athletes up to around $49 million.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) co-authored the bill. Cruz wrote last week that it “restores order to a system being torn apart by too few rules and too much litigation” and “establishes national standards for transfers, eligibility, tampering, inducements, and revenue sharing while protecting athletes’ right to earn [name, image and likeness] compensation.”
The bill now moves to the House, which is not due back in session until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Cruz has called for the House to reconvene earlier than planned to pass the Senate bill, which could also trigger an impeachment vote against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
What the Bill Does
Under the bill, athletes can transfer between schools once without sitting out a year. They will remain subject to the NCAA’s five-year eligibility rule. The clock starts the academic year after athletes turn 19 or when they first enroll full-time in college, whichever comes first.
Each school can directly pay athletes up to around $49 million. That is more than double the $21.5 million cap from a 2025 settlement ending three federal antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA.
The bill also caps agent fees at 5% of earnings. It bars college football coaches from leaving for another job midseason following Lane Kiffin’s departure to LSU from Ole Miss prior to last season’s College Football Playoff.
The bill does not settle whether athletes should be considered university employees with collective bargaining rights.
Who Said What
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said the bill “is predicated on a simple idea: The idea that college sports is in crisis and that it requires a fairly extraordinary act of legislative intervention to address this crisis.” He argued the facts do not back up that characterization of college sports.
Murphy claimed the bill “allows schools to make a whole lot more money … and keep that money for themselves.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), a former college football head coach, said the bill goes too far regulating athlete pay and should only standardize transfer and eligibility rules.
Cruz responded to critics in his X post. “We should be fighting to protect their scholarships, their roster spots, women’s and Olympic sports, and the institution of college athletics itself. College sports is worth saving, for the athletes, for the schools, for the fans, and for America,” he wrote.
How the Vote Split
The 77-22 margin shows broad bipartisan support for the bill’s core purpose. But the split on athlete pay and regulation is more telling.
Cruz and Cantwell framed the bill as a defense of college sports against chaos. Murphy framed it as a handout to institutions at the expense of players. Both are using the same vote count to tell opposite stories about the future of the sport.
The House will now have to decide whether it agrees with the Senate’s reading of the crisis or Murphy’s skepticism. The impeachment angle complicates that calculation, though it is not clear how the two votes would interact procedurally.
What Happens Next
The House is not scheduled to return until after the midterms. That timing means the bill’s fate depends on whether Cruz can convince enough lawmakers to break the usual schedule.
If the House passes the bill, it would become law once signed by the president. If it fails, the NCAA’s existing rules remain in place, though the antitrust settlement cap would continue to apply.
The bill’s supporters argue the NCAA needs clear national standards. Its critics argue the bill hands institutions new powers without giving athletes reciprocal protections.
The Pay Cap Comparison
The $49 million cap is the headline number, and it is the one that drew Murphy’s sharpest objection. The bill allows each school to pay athletes directly up to that amount, which is more than double the $21.5 million cap from the 2025 settlement.
That settlement ended three federal antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA. The new bill effectively raises that ceiling substantially.
The cap applies to direct payments from schools to athletes. Agent fees are capped at 5% of earnings under the bill.
The Transfer Rule
The transfer provision is a significant shift. Athletes can now move between schools once without sitting out a year, which changes the leverage dynamic between institutions and players.
The five-year eligibility rule remains in place. That means athletes have a fixed window for competition, regardless of how many times they transfer.
The clock starts the academic year after athletes turn 19 or when they first enroll full-time in college, whichever comes first. That prevents athletes from accelerating their eligibility by waiting to enroll.
The Impeachment Angle
Cruz’s call for an earlier House return is not purely procedural. It could trigger an impeachment vote against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
That adds a layer of political risk to the bill’s path. The House would need to weigh the sports legislation against the impeachment question when deciding whether to reconvene.
What This Means for Players
The bill’s passage in the Senate changes the legal landscape for college sports. It gives the NCAA and its members the power to set and enforce national rules on transfers and athlete compensation.
Whether that power is used to protect athletes or to exploit them is the open question. Murphy’s argument that the bill allows schools to “make a whole lot more money … and keep that money for themselves” is a warning about the direction of institutional power.
The bill does not settle the employee question. That debate continues elsewhere.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs small colleges and athletes against the NCAA and its member schools, and is against the broad new antitrust exemption that hands the NCAA the power to write its own rules. The NCAA should not be permitted to regulate itself, and the Protect College Sports Act grants it exactly that power. The $49 million pay cap is more than double the old limit, and the transfer and eligibility provisions give the NCAA and its schools the authority to police the sport nationally.
The bill’s supporters argue for national standards. The paper argues that standardization here serves the interest of the largest institutions, not the athletes who must live by them. Murphy’s objection that the bill allows schools to “make a whole lot more money … and keep that money for themselves” captures the core tension: the bill hands institutional power without securing reciprocal protections for the players.
The House vote will determine the bill’s fate. The impeachment angle complicates that calculation, though it is not clear how the two votes would interact procedurally. The paper would prefer the House reject the bill outright, keeping the NCAA’s existing rules in place and preserving the $21.5 million antitrust settlement cap. Readers should follow the House proceedings closely and verify the latest status separately, as the story notes.
Key Facts Box
- Senate vote: 77-22
- Pay cap per school: around $49 million
- Previous cap: $21.5 million from 2025 settlement
- Agent fee cap: 5% of earnings
- Transfer rule: once without sitting out a year
- Eligibility clock: starts at age 19 or first enrollment
- House return: not scheduled until after Nov. 3 midterms
The Senate has spoken. The House will decide whether to agree. The athletes themselves will live with whatever result follows.
Source material: “Senate passes Protect College Sports Act to regulate transfers, paying athletes,” the New York Post.
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