Coaches and Athletes Testify in Support of Protect College Sports Act at Senate Hearing

Coaches, administrators, and student-athletes testified June 10 on Capitol Hill in support of the Protect College Sports Act of 2026. The bill, presented by Sens. Maria Cantwell and Ted Cruz in late May, seeks to establish structure and regulation for college sports.

Syracuse women's basketball coach Felisha Legette-Jack told the panel the legislation is needed to preserve programs and traditions. "There's no more stories. There's no more culture [without the Protect Act]," she said.

"Why? Because we are going to lose that if your bill doesn't pass. " Memphis football coach Charles Huff, in his first year at the school, described effects on local economies and community programs.

"College athletics is one of the very few things left in our world that brings cultures together, brings race, creed, gender," Huff said. Without action, he added, the system would be "completely broken," affecting ticket buyers, fans connected to University of Memphis players, St. Jude's Hospitals, and the City of Memphis.

Middle Tennessee football coach Derek Mason, a former Vanderbilt head coach in the SEC, compared the athletic experience to a perishable good. "The athletic experience is like a carton of milk: it has an expiration date," Mason said. Student-athletes Sara Bower of Akron women's soccer and Gannon Flynn of Boston University men's swimming also appeared.

Ted Cruz asked them to describe the future of NCAA sports without congressional intervention. " Flynn said rules would continue to be struck down by courts on a case-by-case basis. Big South Conference commissioner Sherika A. Montgomery and Texas Southern President Vice Admiral James W.