On May 27, Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced the Protect College Sports Act of 2026 (PCSA) to establish a federal framework governing college athletics focused on student athletes’ rights, media negotiations, consolidation, and competition. In a new insight, Director of Competition Policy Fred Ashton and Grace Faughnan explain how the PCSA Act would largely reinstate the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and College Sports Commission’s (CSC) authority over a broad swath of college athletics.

Key points:

• PCSA, which has bipartisan support, was introduced following the failure of similar legislation in the House of Representatives.
• Among the PCSA’s many provisions, the act would preempt the current patchwork of state name, image, and likeness laws and grant a narrow antitrust exemption to the NCAA and CSC to enforce eligibility, transfer, and revenue-sharing mandates.
• The legislation would restore much of the NCAA and CSC’s governing authority – which had been diminished amid antitrust litigation – that trades market competition for regulatory stability, likely limiting the compensation and mobility of players and coaches, dampening innovation, and raising prices for consumers.

Read the analysis.