The Protect College Sports Act could be dead

Published November 6, 2026 11:22 PM This week’s midterm elections will dramatically reshuffle the deck in Congress. And that could keep those who want the Protect College Sports Act from having the cards necessary to get it passed.The last, best hope for a Congressional bailout to the college sports system (at the expense of the athletes in the revenue-generating sports) comes in the upcoming six-week lame-duck session. The bill has cleared the Senate. The House of Representatives, which disbanded in the middle of September to block a push for the impeachment of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, has done nothing with it.The question now becomes whether the short-timers in the House will muster the will to push their own version of the PSCA through to a successful vote.Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who co-sponsored the original bill, seems to realize that if it doesn’t happen now it never will.“There is no realistic path to secure the same broad bipartisan support for a new bill in 2027 and beyond,” a spokesperson for the Senate Committee on Commerce, led by Cruz, told The Athletic. “Passing the Senate-approved bipartisan bill through the House and sending it to the President’s desk during the lame duck Congress gives House Republicans an opportunity to close out the 119th Congress with a significant win for President Trump, HBCUs, women’s sports, and student athletes. An attempt to amend it would be a surefire defeat for the colleges and fans counting on PCSA’s enactment.” At this point, do House Republicans want to give Trump a win? Right or wrong, those who won’t be coming back in January surely believe they lost their bids for re-election because of him. If so, they’ll feel no compulsion to spend time and effort on another presidential pet project at a time when the list of real issues that need to be addressed keeps growing.If anything, the House would pass an amended version that would require reconciliation while the clock on the 119th Congress ticks toward midnight. The fact that the Senate Commerce Committee regards even an attempt to amend the existing bill as a “surefire defeat” for the bill will make the current House members who soon will be former House members even more likely to say, “Why bother?”