The PCSA passed the Senate 77-22. The House went home. And Black athletes are still waiting for someone to ask the right question.
By Charles Zackary King | October 26, 2026 | America in Black and White
I want to tell you about a number: $1.9 billion. That is the projected total NIL revenue for college athletes by the end of 2025, after the implementation of revenue sharing under the House settlement framework. One point nine billion dollars generated by young people who, five years ago, were legally prohibited from earning a single dollar from their own name. That number represents a revolution. It also represents everything that is still unfinished about that revolution.
On September 28, 2026, the United States Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act — S. 4668, the PCSA — by a vote of 77 to 22. The bill, co-authored by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, is the first time either chamber of Congress has approved sweeping federal legislation governing college athletics. It codifies NIL rights. It doubles the revenue-sharing cap. It creates agent restrictions. It protects women’s and Olympic sports. It includes an HBCU sports media grant program.
It also grants the NCAA and power conferences a limited antitrust exemption, a provision that, by constraining future legal challenges, may ultimately serve as a ceiling on what athletes can demand rather than a floor on what they receive. And it does all of this without a single provision requiring binding athlete representation in the governance structures that will control revenue distribution.
The House is on recess until November 9th. Republican leadership says the chamber will not return before the midterm elections to take up the PCSA. The bill expires January 3rd, 2027, the day the new Congress is sworn in — if not enacted. We are in the window. The outcome is uncertain.
Tonight on America in Black and White, I am doing ninety minutes on this, four full segments, a historical reflection, seven headlines, and a closing monologue. We cover the full legislative arc of the PCSA. We examine Nick Saban’s June 3rd Senate testimony, the Ferrari quote, the “practical amateurism” language, and the complicated economics of a $74-million college coach calling for restraint in athlete pay. We look at Ted Cruz’s College GameDay appearance in Austin on September 12th, the booing, the blazer, the unchallenged platform, and what ESPN’s institutional deference to political power signals about who gets to shape the NIL narrative.
And then we go to the segment that matters most. The one about Black athletes and their families. The one about predatory agents and tax bills that arrived without warning. The one about HBCUs operating with 1.8% of the NIL collective market while Power Four schools divide up billions. The one about what Black parents need to know before their child signs any NIL deal, management agreement, or collective contract.
Because here is the truth: the PCSA will either pass before January 3rd or it will expire. But the challenges facing Black athletes in the NIL era do not expire. Predatory agents will still call. Tax liabilities will still accumulate. HBCU collectives will still be outgunned by Power Four money. And the question of who controls the story of Black athletic excellence, who writes the rules, who sits at the witness table, who gets the College GameDay platform and the network microphone, that question will still need answering regardless of what the House does.
Tonight’s episode is about that question. Watch it. Share it. Send it to every Black parent, every HBCU administrator, every athlete advocate in your network. And then come back next Monday, because we will be here, asking the things no one else is asking, for the people everyone else is talking about but never talking to.
Watch the full episode now on YouTube. Subscribe to AMIBW on all major platforms. Follow Charles Zackary King on LinkedIn, Instagram, and X. Please watch the show live October 26th at 6pm EST by clicking the YouTube Link below:
