“The legislation does not protect college sports, contrary to its misleading title and the NCAA’s ad/lobbying campaign.”
FROM THE DRAKE GROUP: Over the next four weeks, we will deliver a series of briefings on S.4668, the Protect College Sports Act of 2026, which recently passed the Senate and will be considered by the House of Representatives after the November elections. While the bill would address some issues, S.4668 is a complex 180-page bill with too many flaws to fix and a not-so-hidden agenda: giving the Power Four conferences more competitive and recruiting advantages they neither need nor deserve.
Artistic rendition by Yesenia Davalosh
What the Bill Does: Specifically, the bill would deliver a powerful, overly broad antitrust exemption and preempt state laws, the proverbial “keys to the kingdom.” These legal “get out of jail free” cards would not only protect the NCAA and the Power Four from legitimate athlete lawsuits but also allow the NCAA to continue its control-over-athletes rules system that created the House v. NCAA settlement chaos they now want Congress to fix.
Why Congress Should Oppose the Bill
It does not protect college sports, Olympic sports, or women’s sports, contrary to its misleading title and the NCAA’s multimillion-dollar advertising and lobbying campaigns that advance this false narrative.
It benefits only the richest 10 to 15 institutions among the NCAA’s 363 Division I members.
It relegates non-revenue sports to 2024-25 funding levels and invites a continuation of the current inequality in which 93 percent of all athletic programs do not meet Title IX gender equity requirements.
It creates an economically unsustainable professional sports program model that harms all non-Power Four athletic programs.
It fails to adequately address athlete abuse or provide the medical and health benefits and due-process enforcement guarantees needed to ensure a safe educational environment.
It installs a cash-transaction/athletes-chasing-the-money culture antithetical to higher education’s educational purpose and positive team developmental experiences.
A Plan for Moving Forward: We will offer a sensible plan to address the eligibility, transfer, agent, and enforcement chaos created by the NCAA’s governance failures, provide real protection for non-revenue sports, and not bow to the wishes of the Power Four.
*********************
The Drake Group’s mission is to educate U.S. Congress members and higher education decision-makers about critical issues in intercollegiate athletics and what policy leaders can do to ensure college athletes receive the education they were promised in a safe educational environment.
