College sports is changing and Utah is already in the middle of it. Congress is currently debating a federal bill that would rewrite many of the rules for college athletics, amidst Utah’s own state bills already passed on this topic. 

Keep reading to learn more about these changes and how Utah sports may be affected.

 

Here’s the context

For decades, the NCAA governed college sports mostly through its own rules. Several changes in recent years have reshaped that system, such as name, image, and likeness (NIL) compensation, the transfer portal, direct payments to athletes, conference realignment, and new eligibility rules and with these changes, state governments, universities, conferences, and courts have challenged how college sports are regulated. Now, the federal government is throwing their hat in the ring. 

Congress is currently considering the Protect College Sports Act of 2026, a federal proposal that would establish national rules covering areas including NIL, eligibility, transfers, athlete protections, and the financial relationship between universities and athletes, particularly to protect student-athletes' NIL rights and promote fair competition in intercollegiate athletics. The bill was introduced by Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), and Chris Coons (D-Del.). The Senate Commerce Committee advanced it on a bipartisan 19-9 vote in June.

The committee released a revised version in August after negotiations between Cruz, Cantwell, Schmitt, and other stakeholders. The revisions addressed issues including the revenue-sharing cap, NIL agreements, recruiting and retention, and conference realignment.

The Senate voted 77–22 on September 17 to clear a procedural hurdle and move toward consideration of the bill and it is now making its way through the legislative process in the Senate. It has not passed yet and still has a long way to go before becoming law but it is worth keeping track of. 

 

The NCAA’s Role

The NCAA’s rules have already been changing, following the federal House v. NCAA lawsuit over pay for college athletes. The settlement allowed participating Division I schools to pay athletes directly for the first time. It also created new rules for third-party NIL agreements.

Beginning in the 2025–26 academic year, schools could share revenue with athletes up to an annual cap of about $20.5 million per school, roughly 22.5% of certain average revenues under the settlement's formula.

Scholarship and NIL rules were also affected. Instead of limiting the number of scholarships available in each sport, Division I moved toward roster limits while allowing schools to provide scholarships to all athletes on their declared rosters. And third-party NIL agreements connected to a school must satisfy requirements designed to distinguish legitimate commercial agreements from arrangements that function as recruiting or retention payments. Schools also gained a system for reporting and reviewing these agreements.

The NCAA also set up a system to report and review third-party NIL agreements. NIL covers a wide range of payments, such as athletes appearing in ads or incentives for an athlete to enroll in a certain school. The rules increasingly attempt to draw a line between those situations.

 

But what would the federal bill actually do?

The Protect College Sports Act would standardize many of these rules from the NCAA rulebook into federal law. It protects the right of current and prospective student-athletes to sign NIL agreements. It also requires disclosure, creates a national database of NIL agreements, and targets payments meant to get around the revenue-sharing cap. 

Section 114 says that institutions, employees, conferences, and other covered parties may not arrange compensation that would circumvent or cause payments to exceed the applicable revenue-sharing cap. For third-party NIL agreements, the bill requires a “valid business purpose” and says compensation must be “commensurate with compensation paid to individuals with a similar profile, reputation, or notability” who are not student-athletes or prospective student-athletes. These requirements are meant to separate real endorsement deals from disguised athletic pay.

The bill allows certain personal and educational benefits as well, such as reasonable costs for meals, housing, medical coverage, and education. Under Section 115, the revenue-sharing cap would stay in place after the House settlement ends and would be adjusted each year for inflation. The latest version also gives the NCAA a role in enforcing the federal rules and adds provisions on academic benchmarks and broadcast contracts, plus a study of the long-term finances of college athletics.

 

Utah's NIL laws

In 2024, Utah passed HB 202 Student Athlete Amendments, sponsored by Representative Jordan Teuscher and Senator Chris Wilson. The law established rules governing student-athlete NIL agreements and prohibited institutions from using legislative appropriations for purposes related to those agreements. It also created a requirement that agreements above $600 be submitted to the athlete's institution.

And then in 2025, HB 449 Student Athlete Amendments sponsored again by Representative Jordan Teuscher, and this time floor sponsored by Senator Ann Milner, proposed allowing institutions of higher education to compensate student-athletes directly for the use of their NIL. It passed the House and made it to the Senate but was not passed before the Legislative session ended on March 7. 

Instead, its NIL provisions were incorporated into the first substitute of HB 479 Student Athlete Revisions, sponsored by Representative Sahara Hayes and Senator Mike McKell. This legislation allowed an institution of higher education to use certain funds to compensate a student-athlete directly for the use of the athlete's NIL and created an audit requirement for the Utah Board of Higher Education.

When it comes to public money, Utah's 2024 law specifically prohibited institutions from using legislative appropriations for purposes related to student-athlete agreements. The 2025 legislation continued to place restrictions on the sources of funding that could be used for institutional NIL compensation, which creates a distinction between an athletic department's own revenues and other public resources available to a university.

Utah's laws pay close attention to the source of NIL money. Public universities answer to taxpayers in ways private businesses do not. State law keeps legislative appropriations out of student-athlete agreements. It also limits which funds a school can use to pay athletes directly. The effect is to keep an athletic department's own revenue separate from the rest of the university's public funding. Utah treats NIL as a question about how public institutions spend money, in addition to a question about athlete pay.

 

New eligibility rules

In June 2026 the NCAA Division I Cabinet approved an age-based eligibility model. Starting with the fall 2027 incoming class, most athletes will get a five-year eligibility window. The window starts when they first enroll in college or reach a set age. This model replaces the old system of seasons of competition, sport-specific rules, and many individual waivers.

A few exceptions can pause or delay the window such as an official religious mission, active-duty military service, and certain pregnancy-related situations. The mission exception affects Utah more than most states since many students serve missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before or during college. The new rule still lets athletes plan around that service.

 

Who should make the rules?

College sports now fall under several overlapping authorities. The NCAA writes and enforces athletic rules. State legislatures pass their own laws, and federal courts have defined athletes' rights through lawsuits. Congress is weighing federal legislation, and conferences and universities set policies of their own.

National rules would give schools and athletes one standard across state lines. Federal law could also limit Utah's ability to set policies for its own schools. For these reasons, the Protect College Sports Act would do more than update NCAA rules. It could shift the power to set those rules from the NCAA and the states to Congress.

Conference realignment adds another factor. The University of Utah and BYU compete in the Big 12. Utah State plays in the rebuilt Pac-12. The federal bill includes provisions on how conferences are governed and when schools can move between them. The latest draft relaxed some of the earlier limits on realignment, and negotiations are ongoing. Changes to conference rules, media contracts, or revenue sharing would affect athletes at all three schools.

 

The Bigger Questions Go Beyond Sports

College athletics has become connected to larger questions about higher education, economics, public policy, and institutional governance.

• How much should athletes be compensated?

• How should NIL deals be regulated?

• How should universities distribute athletic revenues?

• What role should public funding play?

• How should athletes who transfer or take time away from school be treated?

• And who should have the final authority to answer these questions?

They now involve state legislatures, Congress, courts, universities, athletes, and businesses. 

 

So what now?

College sports are unlikely to return to the way they operated before NIL. The financial relationship between the athletes and universities have changed, with schools now paying athletes directly, the NCAA rewriting its eligibility rules, and Utah passing multiple NIL laws.

The Protect College Sports Act is still in the Senate and could be amended many times before a final vote. If it passes, lawmakers, universities, the NCAA, and possibly the courts would have to decide how it fits with Utah's existing laws.

The decisions ahead will shape higher education policy in Utah, university budgets, opportunities for athletes, and the balance of power between the state and the federal government.

Keep following along with the Doers Network to see how federal policy affects Utah!