Senate passes sweeping college sports bill to regulate athlete pay and transfers

The useful part

Monday that would regulate college sports, an attempt to end "chaos" in an industry that has been upended by skyrocketing athlete payments and near-unrestricted transfers between schools. The overwhelming 77-22 vote to pass the legislation is the strongest effort yet by Congress to set national regulations governing payments to college athletes for their name, image and likeness and how often they can transfer. It would give the NCAA new authority over those rules and limited antitrust protections to enforce them.

How it works

• "It would be nice if college sports could somehow magically fix itself, but this is a matter of law, federal law, and only Congress can fix it," said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas,...
• The bill is the product of years of Senate negotiations that intensified after a 2025 lawsuit settlement uprooted the college sports landscape by allowing colleges to pay their players.
• The legislation, which would still have to pass the House, would codify the settlement into law but also establish new guardrails around the system in an attempt to rein in the runaway costs for colleges.
• President Donald Trump praised the bill in a social media post after the late night passage.