College Sports Act Passes Senate: What It Means for OC

The U.S. Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act on Monday, Sept. 28, by a vote of 77-22. According to NPR, the bill would give the NCAA a limited antitrust exemption, bring back rules involving eligibility and transfers, and create federal rules for Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals. The bill now moves to the House of Representatives, but the House is currently in recess until after the November midterm elections. 

While most of the attention around college sports has been on bigger Division I schools, the bill could raise questions for smaller schools like Oklahoma Christian University. Oklahoma Christian is an NCAA Division II school and competes in the Lone Star Conference. According to Oklahoma Christian’s website, the university has about 400 student-athletes and offers 23 sports. This puts Oklahoma Christian in a different situation than the large Division I schools with big athletic budgets and NIL deals in college sports. 

One of the biggest parts of the bill is NIL. NPR reports the bill would set rules for NIL deals and allow college athletes to continue being paid for their name, image and likeness. The bill also deals with transfers and eligibility, which could affect how athletes move between schools. For a school like Oklahoma Christian, these changes could be important even if the university does not have the same amount of money involved in athletics as some of the larger schools. 

Another part of the bill that could matter to smaller schools is its focus on women’s and Olympic sports. NPR reported that the bill would require schools to maintain scholarships and roster spots for those sports for a certain period of time. The article also points out more than 100 women’s and Olympic sports teams have been eliminated since 2023. Oklahoma Christian has several sports that fall into these categories, including women’s golf, softball, swimming, track and field, and volleyball. 

For now, it is still too early to know exactly what the bill would mean for Oklahoma Christian. The Senate passed the bill, but it still needs to go through the House before it could become law. For Oklahoma Christian athletes, the main question is how these new national rules would apply to a Division II school and whether they would change the way athletes handle NIL deals, transfers or scholarships.

https://www.npr.org/2026/09/28/nx-s1-5977851/protect-college-sports-act-senate-bill-vote