How do we feel about the PCSA?

[Fletcher]

It's obviously meant more for football and basketball, but - politics aside - how do we think this would impact college wrestling?

Adds some restrictions on revenue share, NIL opportunity, and ability to transfer. This is bad for elite wrestlers, but good for college wrestling overall. Talent would get spread out across more programs instead of the best wrestlers getting horded at schools with the most NIL and revenue money.

There also are provisions to protect Olympic/non-revenue sports from getting cut. Not sure how that will work in operation but should be good for wrestling in theory.

Other opinions?

[Voice of the Quakers]

This is in my area of work.

Chances of the Protect College Sports Act passing in this Congressional cycle are pretty low, IMO. There are enough detractors in the Senate to prevent it coming up to vote this week. Opposition in the House could be even stronger.

Personally, I'd love to see a much more limited bill move forward the next Congressional cycle that provides limited antitrust protection to colleges to allow them to set rules regarding eligibility (5 in 5) and transfers. But, bills rarely get smaller when they are reintroduced into successive Congresses - this is the 2nd Congress in which the PCSA has been introduced, and most non-spending bills need three cycles to garner enough support for passage - so the PCSA is likely to get larger as we move forward. If passed, I would expect lawsuits to be immediately filed against it, leading to more of the chaos we've seen in the runup to this year's college football season.

Ultimately, I'm not a big organized labor supporter, but the only stop to all of this is going to be collective bargaining similar to what we see in professional sports. The money in college sports has simply gotten too big to handle any other way.

So, back to the original question...I don't worry too much about how the PCSA will impact college wrestling because I don't think this version of the bill is going to pass. We'll see what comes down the road in due time.

Edited September 14 by Voice of the Quakers

[Voice of the Quakers]

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/49952533/senate-votes-begin-consideration-protect-college-sports-act

[MPhillips]

Thanks for the article...

[Voice of the Quakers]

The House has already canceled any remaining votes before this year’s elections. So, even if the Senate does pass the PSCA - and yesterday’s procedural vote did make Senate approval more likely - I’m still not sure there is enough time during the December “lame duck” session for the House to pass any related college sports bill that could be reconciled with the PCSA. The focus will be spending bills and other bills that can pass on a party line given the historical likelihood that the House will flip to Democrats for 2027-28. And, a college sports bill without collective bargaining rights for college athletes like the PSCA has, IMO, zero chance of being taken up by Democrats in the next Congress. We shall see. 

[Voice of the Quakers]

Great summary of the PCSA in the Front Office Sports article @JasonBryant shared via his newsletter this morning. 

https://frontofficesports.com/article/protect-college-sports-act-senate-bill-explaining-rules-changes/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Here is the key quote regarding wrestling:

Finally, while the bill requires schools to maintain a certain number of women’s and Olympic sports roster spots (commensurate with the amount in the 2024–25 academic season), the provision only applies to Division I and FBS institutions that report more than $80 million in annual athletics revenue.

In the short-term, Power 4 schools would have to maintain their current participation in Women's and Olympic sports. However, even if there is no "sunset" for this or other provisions in the PCSA, I doubt there is any expectation that schools are going to be required to field every team it currently sponsors in perpetuity. This bill is about college football and college football only - OK, it's 95-99 percent about college football - and Congress and/or the general public is not going to react if schools pull the plug on non-revenue sports if said schools think they can get one more win for their football teams.

So, my advice to the group is the same as it was when I first started posting on this board when it was at TheMat.com/USA Wrestling 20+ years ago. College wrestling teams and their supporters need to fundraise, fundraise, fundraise NOW and become as self-sufficient as possible. Raisning money once the decision has been made to cut the program is too late.

I'll keep posting in this thread as developments warrant.

[Elevator]

On 9/14/2026 at 2:30 PM, Voice of the Quakers said:

This is in my area of work.

Chances of the Protect College Sports Act passing in this Congressional cycle are pretty low, IMO. There are enough detractors in the Senate to prevent it coming up to vote this week. Opposition in the House could be even stronger.

Personally, I'd love to see a much more limited bill move forward the next Congressional cycle that provides limited antitrust protection to colleges to allow them to set rules regarding eligibility (5 in 5) and transfers. But, bills rarely get smaller when they are reintroduced into successive Congresses - this is the 2nd Congress in which the PCSA has been introduced, and most non-spending bills need three cycles to garner enough support for passage - so the PCSA is likely to get larger as we move forward. If passed, I would expect lawsuits to be immediately filed against it, leading to more of the chaos we've seen in the runup to this year's college football season.

Ultimately, I'm not a big organized labor supporter, but the only stop to all of this is going to be collective bargaining similar to what we see in professional sports. The money in college sports has simply gotten too big to handle any other way.

So, back to the original question...I don't worry too much about how the PCSA will impact college wrestling because I don't think this version of the bill is going to pass. We'll see what comes down the road in due time.

Thanks for sharing insight on this thread - interesting stuff.

As to the highlighted portion, time to get on board and support organized labor?

[Voice of the Quakers]

5 hours ago, Elevator said:

Thanks for sharing insight on this thread - interesting stuff.

As to the highlighted portion, time to get on board and support organized labor?

Because you asked...

Given colleges are going to be given antitrust protections by potential passage of the PCSA, I not only think collective bargaining is preferable in this situation but also necessary. In other industries without antitrust protections, I'm not so keen on organized labor.

With that being said, I will restrict my further comments on this topic to the topic.

Thanks.

[Voice of the Quakers]

A good read about the issues the PCSA will face in the House, particularly from Republicans. It's a very long article, so I won't repost in full here. You should be able to access the article with a simple no-pay sign-up.

The closing:

Even if the House passes the PCSA, the bill would have to return to the Senate for another vote if amendments are made—causing an even bigger time crunch. Democrats would likely have to get on board with a more conservative bill, particularly with regard to the international athlete ban and employee status ban. 

If the legislation can’t get to Trump’s desk before the next Congress is sworn in Jan. 3, the legislative process would have to restart.

https://frontofficesports.com/article/house-republican-opposition-protect-college-sports-act-score/

[MPhillips]

3 hours ago, Voice of the Quakers said:

before the next Congress is sworn in Jan. 3, the legislative process would have to restart.

[Voice of the Quakers]

The Senate has officially passed the PCSA. The House is not scheduled to return to session until mid-November.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/50056206/us-senate-votes-77-22-pass-protect-college-sports-act