College athletes can earn money from their name and image.
S. 4668 — Protect College Sports Act of 2026 · Filed by Ted Cruz (R-TX) · 9 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 2, 2026 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill lets college athletes make money from deals using their name, image, or likeness. They cannot lose their scholarships or playing rights for doing this. Schools must tell athletes about deals over $600. Schools must make a public list of what similar deals are worth. The bill sets rules for athlete agents. It makes sure athletes get health care after they leave school. It protects athletes from pressure by sports departments about their classes.
Who it affects
College athletes gain the right to earn money from deals. They get health care after they stop playing. Schools and sports groups must follow new rules about deals and agents.
One thing to notice
The bill requires athletes to report deals over $600. This might make small deals harder to do. A public list of deal values might lower what athletes can earn.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
9 cosponsors: 5 Democrats, 4 Republicans.
- Jun 2, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jun 2, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation”
- Jun 18, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of…”
- Sep 28, 2026 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate with an amendment by Yea-Nay Vote. 77 - 22. Record Vote Number: 250. (text: CR S5044-5063)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
88 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 88 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $23,212,454 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 5 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 99% of bills with any report.
Ted Cruz, who sponsored the bill, received $531,115 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Amazon.com Services LLC — $4,360,000 in 1 report
- Ncta - the Internet & Television Association — $3,190,000 in 1 report
- National Association of Broadcasters — $2,620,000 in 1 report
- American Association for Justice — $1,840,000 in 1 report
- Paramount Skydance Corporation — $1,520,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- likeness — A person's picture, image, or the way they look.
- scholarships — Money a school gives to students to pay for school.
- agents — People who help athletes make deals and earn money.
- health care — Medical help and treatment for sick or hurt people.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (50,094 characters) on Jul 9, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 23, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“College athletes can earn money from their name and image.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s4668/simple Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.