Bill protects Army-Navy game from other football broadcasts.
S. 5561 — Protect America's Game Act · Filed by Tim Sheehy (R-MT) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Sep 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
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
The bill changes a 1961 law about sports broadcasting. College sports groups can make joint broadcast deals. But they must keep other postseason football games off the air during a protected time. The protected time is one hour before and 30 minutes after the Army-Navy game. The Army-Navy game happens the second Saturday in December. If a group breaks this rule, it loses its broadcast rights.
Who it affects
The U.S. Military Academy and U.S. Naval Academy get a protected time slot. College athletic conferences and schools must follow the new rule. People who watch college football may see fewer game choices.
One thing to notice
The bill does not make anyone broadcast the Army-Navy game. It only stops other postseason football games from airing then.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Sep 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 24, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- postseason football games — College football games played after the regular season ends.
- broadcast deals — Agreements that let companies show sports games on TV or online.
- conference — A group of colleges that play sports together and make shared decisions.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,765 characters) on Oct 16, 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Bill protects Army-Navy game from other football broadcasts.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5561/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.