NFL Pushes Protect College Sports Act To Congress; Against SEC’s Wish

Needless to say, college football is in dire need of some kind of authoritative party now, after all the shams that have started taking place. So, Senator of the United States of America Ted Cruz came up with a single legislation body to oversee every aspect of college football. Well, college football’s jewel conference, the SEC, doesn’t like the current ideas and outlines of the College Protect Act because of too many loopholes and, most importantly, the media sharing pool. Despite that, shockingly, the NFL is pushing for it, going all in on the senator’s governing plans.

According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo, on Tuesday evening, the NFLPA and NBAPA teamed up and backed the Protect College Sports Act of 2026. They both combined and drafted a letter to Chairman Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell of their pledge. This legislation focuses on several important issues that could change college sports. It would give the NCAA more control, set rules for TV deals, offer protection from certain lawsuits, and could help stop conferences from getting bigger and bigger by constantly adding new schools and all other sorts of things.

At its core, this bill is a direct attempt by Congress to pull the brakes on the SEC and the Big Ten.

The NFLPA and NBAPA sent a letter to lawmakers today supportive of the Protect College Sports Act. The NFL also released a statement in support of the Act. pic.twitter.com/wlUdYPmNB4

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) June 16, 2026

At its core, this bill is Congress trying to slow down the SEC and Big Ten. Right now, these two “super-conferences” are taking most of the best teams, TV money, and power, which could turn college sports into basically a two-league system where everyone else is left behind. The goal of the bill is to stop this by creating one clear national rulebook and taking control away from individual conference leaders.

One of the biggest issues in the bill, and the main reason the NFL supports it, is “media rights pooling.” This would let college conferences group their TV deals together and sell them as one package under special legal protection. The NFL already does this, sharing TV money equally among all 32 teams so smaller teams can compete with bigger ones. But the SEC and Big Ten don’t like this idea. They prefer to make their own huge TV deals and don’t want to be forced to share their money with smaller conferences.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey told conference members that the SEC and Big Ten are generally okay with the idea of sharing media rights revenue, but they still have concerns about parts of the proposal.

“We are not opposed to other conferences and universities exploring and opting in to media pooling,” Sankey told conference members this week.

However, Sankey said the current version of the proposal could create legal problems for the SEC.
“However, the media pooling, as written, exposes the SEC to potential lawsuits forcing the conference into the media pooling practice. … It forces the SEC and Big Ten to either play intraconference postseason tournaments or play only other non-pooling conferences or universities in the postseason to replace the [College Football Playoff].”

In one way, this Protect College Sports Act makes sense.

Why Many Believe the Bill Is Necessary

However, in their joint letter, the unions praised the bill for protecting an athlete’s federal right to make money from NIL without schools or the NCAA interfering. The bill also adds strong medical and healthcare rules. Colleges would have to cover sports injuries and illnesses, and also provide healthcare support for up to five years after an athlete leaves school.

The bill also tries to protect smaller sports. Any big university that makes over $80 million a year from sports would not be allowed to cut women’s or Olympic sports. These schools also could not reduce team sizes or reduce financial aid below 2024–25 levels.

This is meant to stop schools from putting all their money into football and basketball while cutting sports like track, soccer, gymnastics, or swimming.

Politicians like Senator Ted Cruz say college sports has become too messy with “transfer chaos” and “fake NIL bidding wars.” To fix this, the bill limits transfers so that if a player transfers a second time as an undergraduate, they must sit out a season.

It also sets a five-year limit on college eligibility and stops former pro athletes from coming back to play in college.

Now everything comes down to votes this Thursday in the Senate Commerce Committee. The 28 members will debate the 111-page bill and decide if it moves forward to the full Senate. Lawmakers are determined to push it forward. They told they will move forward and intend to pass it regardless of whether the SEC or Big Ten ever agree to it. With the NFL and the major pro unions officially picking a side, the pressure is higher than ever on college sports executives to fall in line before the government takes over their sandbox.

The post NFL Pushes Protect College Sports Act To Congress; Against SEC’s Wish appeared first on EssentiallySports.