AFCA Letter Regarding The Protect College Sports Act
June 20, 2026
Dear Chairman Cruz and Ranking Member Cantwell:
On behalf of the American Football Coaches Association, thank you for your leadership on the important issues facing college athletics today. College sports are at an inflection point. After years of litigation, shifting state laws, evolving NIL rules, and growing instability, coaches, student-athletes, families, institutions, and fans all benefit from thoughtful efforts to bring greater clarity and consistency to the college athletics landscape.
We appreciate your bipartisan work on the Protect College Sports Act. College athletics has entered a historic new era in which student-athletes are finally permitted to share in the value they help create through Name, Image, and Likeness opportunities and emerging revenue-sharing models. This progress deserves recognition and protection.
At the same time, the rapid growth of financial opportunities has exposed significant regulatory gaps. One of those gaps is the lack of a comprehensive national framework governing who may represent college athletes in financial negotiations. The few federal protections that currently exist were enacted more than 25 years ago through the Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act and long predate the NIL era. This lack of uniform standards for “agents” creates opportunities for abuse and conflicts of interest, while making it more difficult to ensure that student-athletes receive responsible, knowledgeable guidance.
Accordingly, we are encouraged by provisions in the legislation that seek to establish greater transparency and accountability for athlete representatives. More work remains to be done in this area, but measures addressing agent registration, disclosure requirements, and standards of conduct represent constructive steps toward protecting student-athletes and promoting greater confidence in the NIL marketplace. At present, there is no reliable national system through which student-athletes, parents, coaches, or administrators can determine whether an individual claiming to represent young athletes is registered, certified, qualified, or subject to a set of minimum professional standards.
For more information about the AFCA, visit www.AFCA.com. For more interesting articles, check out The Insider and subscribe to our weekly email.
If you are interested in more in-depth articles and videos, please become an AFCA member. You can find out more information about membership and specific member benefits on the AFCA Membership Overview page. If you are ready to join, please fill out the AFCA Membership Application.
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Dear Chairman Cruz and Ranking Member Cantwell:
On behalf of the American Football Coaches Association, thank you for your leadership on the important issues facing college athletics today. College sports are at an inflection point. After years of litigation, shifting state laws, evolving NIL rules, and growing instability, coaches, student-athletes, families, institutions, and fans all benefit from thoughtful efforts to bring greater clarity and consistency to the college athletics landscape.
We appreciate your bipartisan work on the Protect College Sports Act. College athletics has entered a historic new era in which student-athletes are finally permitted to share in the value they help create through Name, Image, and Likeness opportunities and emerging revenue-sharing models. This progress deserves recognition and protection.
At the same time, the rapid growth of financial opportunities has exposed significant regulatory gaps. One of those gaps is the lack of a comprehensive national framework governing who may represent college athletes in financial negotiations. The few federal protections that currently exist were enacted more than 25 years ago through the Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act and long predate the NIL era. This lack of uniform standards for “agents” creates opportunities for abuse and conflicts of interest, while making it more difficult to ensure that student-athletes receive responsible, knowledgeable guidance.
Accordingly, we are encouraged by provisions in the legislation that seek to establish greater transparency and accountability for athlete representatives. More work remains to be done in this area, but measures addressing agent registration, disclosure requirements, and standards of conduct represent constructive steps toward protecting student-athletes and promoting greater confidence in the NIL marketplace. At present, there is no reliable national system through which student-athletes, parents, coaches, or administrators can determine whether an individual claiming to represent young athletes is registered, certified, qualified, or subject to a set of minimum professional standards.
For more information about the AFCA, visit www.AFCA.com. For more interesting articles, check out The Insider and subscribe to our weekly email.
If you are interested in more in-depth articles and videos, please become an AFCA member. You can find out more information about membership and specific member benefits on the AFCA Membership Overview page. If you are ready to join, please fill out the AFCA Membership Application.
