College athletes could get one federal rulebook

College athletes could spend less time navigating a maze of school policies, state laws and association rules if a proposal in Washington took hold. H.R. 9137, the Protect College Sports Act of 2026, was introduced June 4 by Rep. Michael Baumgartner, and it would try to build a single federal framework for name, image and likeness, or NIL, rights, fair competition and the day-to-day protections that shape a player’s college career.

For athletes, that kind of rewrite is not just about whether a check can be signed. It is about who gets to set the terms of a season, who can speak for a player in a deal, what paperwork must exist when money changes hands and what support a school must provide while the athlete is trying to stay eligible, healthy and enrolled. In college sports, that is where the power actually lives.

The money trail

The bill’s opening sections show that Congress is not only looking at whether athletes can earn from their NIL. It includes name, image and likeness protections, plus disclosures and an NIL agreement database. That points to a federal attempt to make the market easier to see, not just easier to talk about.

It also would modify the Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act and add agent registry requirements for intercollegiate athletic associations. That matters because the NIL era has created a crowded middle ground where athletes, schools, agents and other representatives all have something to gain from the same relationship. A registry and a database would not settle every fight over leverage, but they would put more of the transaction on paper.

For years, college sports ran on a story line that the athletes were students first and employees, professionals or contractors never. NIL changed that conversation by opening the door to compensation around an athlete’s identity. Baumgartner’s bill tries to go further, turning that already messy market into something more legible to the people inside it.

A wider safety net

The bill reaches past compensation and into the parts of college life that decide whether an athlete can keep going. Its table of contents points to academic protections, medical coverage requirements and health, wellness and safety standards. It also creates an Office of the Student Athlete Ombudsman, which suggests a place for complaints or disputes to land when a player feels lost between a team, a school and a larger athletic system.

That combination matters because a college career can go sideways in ways that have nothing to do with performance. A nagging injury can start changing class schedules. A difficult academic load can collide with travel. A health concern can become a question about whether the athlete can keep playing at all. The bill’s structure suggests Congress wants to treat those pressures as part of the same problem, not separate boxes handled by separate offices.

In other words, the proposal is not just asking how much an athlete can earn. It is asking what obligations come with the money, and what guardrails should exist when the person earning it is still moving through school.

When the roster changes

The bill also reaches into the parts of college sports that are not glamorous but shape careers fast. It includes comparable standards for access to facilities, services and events, rules governing certain mid-season coaching transitions and student athlete representation on governing boards. It also covers transfers and eligibility, two topics that can determine whether an athlete keeps a scholarship, keeps playing or has to start over somewhere else.