Time is ticking, but West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito remains cautiously optimistic.
A proponent of the Protect College Sports Act of 2026, Capito is hopeful the bipartisan U.S. Senate bill makes it through to a full vote in the U.S. Senate ahead of a recess starting August 7, though West Virginia’s first female Senator recognizes the hot topic is more likely to be voted on later than sooner.
“We could possibly see this pop. If we don’t see it pop in the next three to four days, it’s unlikely that we’ll hear anything before September or October,” Capito said Monday as a guest on Citynet Statewide Sportsline. “It would be nice to have something more affirmative before college football season starts, whether we get it all across the finish line. If by the end of the week we haven’t reached some kind of compromise, it’s probably on the shelf for another six to eight weeks at least. But the good news is we’re closing in on it, and it’s going in the right direction.”
The Protect College Sports Act of 2026 passed the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation by a 19-9 vote in June, allowing the legislation to be under consideration from the full Senate.
With lead sponsors Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the Protect College Sports Act of 2026 was designed in part to create an antitrust exemption for the NCAA that would enforce transfer rules and eligibility across college sports as well as enforce spending caps.
There was hope the bill would make it through the full Senate before summer concluded, though last week, ESPN reported that is unexpected.
Should that be the case, there would be only a small window of opportunity for a piece of legislation that exceeds 100 pages to get through Congress prior to November elections.
“This sets parameters on recruitment, agents, how many times the student-athlete can transfer, how they can transfer,” said Capito, a Republican. “It protects women in Olympic sports, which is extremely important to me. It protects our historic rivalries. It clarifies the dollars and how they can be spent, and it gives us enforceable standards.
“Most importantly, it protects the student-athlete and promoting education, which we forget that is part of the reason the students are there — and a big reason. Where we are now, the NCAA has been kind of a lame partner for the last several years and hasn’t fixed anything, so it went to the courts.”
A co-sponsor of the bill, Capito offered an amendment in June that was included in the legislation and designed to protect distribution and broadcasting of non-revenue generating sports and their media rights.
“What I said was you can’t do anything less broadcasting women and Olympic sports than you’re doing right now, because this is another fear,” said Capito, who played collegiate tennis at Duke. “We know football is the biggie and men’s basketball mostly. Women’s basketball to a certain extent, but really the two men’s sports. You don’t want to have them just be able to overtake everything else, so you won’t see collegiate gymnastics, volleyball or softball or any of the other sports that we enjoy watching. So I wanted to preserve those rights.”
Opposition of the Protect College Sports Act of 2026 has been widespread across the Southeastern Conference and Big Ten, and Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports’ reported Tuesday both leagues have received revisions to the bill, and have a 9 a.m. Wednesday deadline to state their position.
That is the final chance for both conferences to change their stance on the bill before it moves to the Senate Floor, is delayed until later this year or fizzles out completely.
“One of the issues, I think, that’s troubling to those conferences is we have a stipulation in the bill that says you cannot add to your conference,” Capito said. “Trying to prevent a super conference that sort of leaves everybody else in the dust. We saw what happened to the Pac-12. They just disintegrated. The SEC keeps adding and same with the Big Ten. They don’t like the handcuffs on that.
“The other issue they don’t like is the broadcast rights. Particularly Notre Dame can right their own ticket on the broadcasting and it’s very lucrative for those schools, and they’re winning schools, National Championship schools and all that kind of stuff. So they can demand a favorable contract with ESPN, Fox Sports and others that broadcast. This bill says it would allow for a coalition of all the schools, much like the NFL does, to negotiate broadcast rights together. They don’t like that, because they’re going to have to give a little bit, because they’re the ones bringing in the big cash.”
Among revisions to the Protect College Sports Act of 2026 are a retention pool of $20 million that dropped from the previous figure of $25 million. That is a per-school figure to be spent on retaining athletes in addition to a $5 million women’s credit for women’s athletes only and the current revenue sharing cap of $21.3 million.
“I am astounded at these numbers,” Capito said. “I don’t know if that will make it through.”
She went on to add that there could be give and take regarding the retention pool.
“I am concerned, but the other part of it is, if it’s optional and we still get these other provisions on recruiting, transferring, protecting agents and other items protecting women and Olympic sports, I might be able to go with it,” Capito said, “but I think that’s going to be a pretty hard sell.”