College Sports Adapts Amid Legislative Shifts: VenuesNow Conference Panel Discussion

The first panel of the 2026 VenuesNow Conference – University Venues: Navigating the Competitive Landscape in a Rapidly Evolving Market – was perfectly timed coming just hours after the U.S. Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act by a 77-22 vote.

Panel moderator Dan Griffis, President Global Partnerships, Oak View Group ( Pollstar ’s parent company) provided attendees some background on the how the Protect College Sports Act will impact universities. The Act is a major attempt to put college athletics under one federal framework after years of court decisions, state NIL laws and the 2025 House v. NCAA settlement. It is not law yet; it now goes to the House

Panelist Erin O’Connell, Senior Deputy Athletic Director and COO of the University of Washington said the Act could replace inconsistent state rules with national standards for agent regulation, student-athlete protections, health-care extensions, transfer limits, five-year eligibility, roster caps and institutional NIL payments

“First and foremost, it’s supporting our student athletes and their families and putting them first,” said O’Connell. “There’s a lot of competing interests right now with the dollars out there and we are absolutely in this new world of paying for the name, image, likeness, which absolutely is something that we probably missed the boat on, frankly, and maybe wouldn’t have gotten to this space if we had been – the NCAA and the number of institutions – ahead of the curve.”

With the bill, NIL becomes federally protected but regulated. Athletes would have an explicit federal right to earn NIL money. Deals over $600 would have to be disclosed, and NIL arrangements would have to represent legitimate commercial activity rather than disguised recruiting payments. Agent fees generally would be capped at 5%.

Revenue sharing continues, but with limits. The bill preserves the direct payments to athletes created by the House v. NCAA settlement. It also creates an additional retention fund that schools could use to keep players from transferring. The overall framework would put the annual school spending ceiling at roughly $49 million, with additional flexibility tied to women’s and Olympic sports.

The transfer portal gets much tighter. Athletes generally would get one transfer without losing eligibility. A subsequent transfer would normally mean sitting out a season, although there are exceptions, including a coaching change, discontinuation of a sport and certain abuse circumstances.

Five-year eligibility would return as the national standard. Division I and II athletes generally would have five calendar years in which to compete, with exceptions for circumstances such as pregnancy, military service, religious missions and serious medical conditions.

Scholarships and medical benefits get stronger protections. Schools couldn’t take away scholarships because of poor performance, injury or roster decisions. Athletes would receive certain post-career medical coverage, and former athletes would have an extended period in which to return and finish their degrees with scholarship assistance.

Women’s and Olympic sports get specific protections. The legislation requires schools to maintain certain sports and roster opportunities, intended to prevent athletic departments from concentrating resources so heavily on football and basketball that other sports disappear.

Griffis offered some perspective on the significance of the college Olympic pipeline.

“Other countries have their own programs that are fully funded by the government to train these athletes to compete,” he said. “The NCAA is largely our mechanism for training athletes. So, 75% of all the rostered athletes in the United States came from college sports on the Summer Olympic side. I think it’s 40% for the Winter Olympics. If you look at the medal breakout, it’s something like 90% of all medals that are worn by the United States are done so by college athletes. So, if you don’t think that protecting these Olympic sports is important, it has a massive ripple effect.”

The bill would give the NCAA, conferences and schools limited federal antitrust protection when enforcing the new rules on revenue sharing, NIL, eligibility and transfers. It would also preempt conflicting state laws, creating one national system instead of the current patchwork

The panel, which included Jason Michael Ford, Principal, Populous, and Gavin Gough, Associate Athletic Drector, University of Utah Athletics, examined how college athletics is professionalizing, and how schools are adapting regulation, revenue models, facilities and operations in an attempt to grow revenue streams.

Gough said Utah has adopted a unique approach .

“We created this entity and we put all of our commercial business into this entity that’s outside of athletics,” explained Gough of the University’s Crimson Brand Partners. “There are a handful of departments across the country that have done that and looking at doing that, but what make our partnership a little unique is that we did partner with Culture Capital and so they are a minority stakeholder in this venture.”

The partnership is intended to increase revenue through premium seating, sponsorships, partnerships and events.

Populous supports the mission of driving revenue through stadium design adding premium spaces, sellable amenities and tiers of seating options. Ford emphasized the desire for multi-use, 365-day facilities, that have the flexibility to generate non-game revenue.

“We’ve talked about this for years – ‘How do you get people to come ton an event?’” offered Ford. “When you talk about college sports, its all about access. When you talk about raising revenue and donors, you give them access to things and that includes the premium at events, but it also includes outside events.”

_Originally reported by [Pollstar](https://news.pollstar.com/2026/09/29/university-athletic-programs-adapt-to-change-in-real-time/)._