WASHINGTON — TaylorMade's decision to sign Charlie Woods to an NIL deal earlier this month has taken on added weight as federal lawmakers advance the most sweeping overhaul of college athletics in years. The Protect College Sports Act cleared a major hurdle with a 77-22 vote in the Senate on Monday, Sept. 28, advancing to the House of Representatives with eight co-sponsors headlined by Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.).
"The most important part of the bill is bringing order to chaos," Cruz told USA TODAY Sports. "College sports is the Wild West. There are essentially no rules. Litigation has struck down virtually all the rules, and as a result, you have athletes going into the transfer portal two, three, four times. You have athletes competing for seven or eight years. You have 27, 28-year-olds competing against 17-year-olds. You have pro players coming back and playing college sports, and every school is in a spending spiral where virtually every athletic department is losing millions of dollars. Many of them are losing tens of millions of dollars. It's unsustainable, and as a consequence, every week we see a different problem. Programs being canceled, we see women's sports being canceled. We see Olympic sports being canceled, and if Congress doesn't act within a few years, we will see hundreds of thousands of roster slots and scholarship positions going away, and that would be a tragedy. It would be a tragedy because every year right now we have roughly 500,000 college athletes in America."
For golf, the implications could be far-reaching. Woods, the son of 15-time major champion Tiger Woods, is committed to Florida State and entering his senior year of high school, and his TaylorMade agreement underscored how NIL opportunities have expanded beyond traditional revenue sports. While top juniors have long received free equipment, paid NIL agreements remain rare in college golf, with one Division I men's coach recently estimating that only a few dozen players currently have manufacturer deals that include compensation.
The Protect College Sports Act would not eliminate NIL opportunities such as Woods' partnership with TaylorMade. Athletes would still be free to pursue outside endorsement agreements and marketing relationships. Instead, the legislation seeks to establish a national framework for college athletics while providing additional revenue-sharing opportunities through schools, a move supporters say would reduce uncertainty for athletes and athletic departments.
The bill also includes provisions aimed at protecting Olympic and non-revenue sports, a category that includes golf. Backers argue schools facing mounting financial pressure could be forced to reduce scholarships, cut roster spots or eliminate sports, and the legislation would allow schools to direct additional revenue-sharing funds toward women's and Olympic sports to help preserve opportunities for future golfers. The proposal still faces a vote in the House before it can reach President Donald Trump's desk.