By Michael T. Benson
For WVNews
College athletics has always been about more than wins and losses.
At its best, college sports create opportunity. They help students earn degrees, develop leadership skills, unite communities, and strengthen institutions that educate the next generation of Americans. At land-grant universities like West Virginia University, athletics also serves as powerful engines which help fuel community development, alumni engagement, and state pride.
Today, however, that model is under extraordinary strain.
Over the past several years, a patchwork of state laws, court decisions, and rapidly evolving Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) policies has fundamentally reshaped the landscape of college athletics. While many of these changes have expanded opportunities for student-athletes, they have also produced an increasingly fragmented system where institutions operate under different rules depending on their geography rather than a common national standard.
That is neither fair nor sustainable.
Congress now has an opportunity to establish a durable framework through the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act. Thoughtful federal legislation can preserve the benefits of NIL while creating consistency, transparency, and accountability across college athletics.
This conversation is often framed as a debate between universities and student-athletes. It is not.
Student-athletes deserve the opportunity to benefit from their talents. They also deserve meaningful health protections, educational support, transparent agreements, and a system that will still exist for future generations. Those goals are entirely compatible with competitive college athletics.
The alternative is continued uncertainty.
Without national standards, institutions across the country will continue making difficult financial decisions simply to keep pace with an environment where legal obligations, recruiting rules, and competitive expectations vary from state to state. That uncertainty affects not only football and basketball, but Olympic sports, women’s sports, and countless educational opportunities that depend upon a stable financial foundation.
For universities like West Virginia University, the stakes extend well beyond athletics.
As West Virginia’s flagship, land-grant university, research 1 institution, our mission is to educate students, conduct research that improves lives, deliver world-class healthcare, and support economic growth. Athletics helps advance that mission by bringing communities together, attracting students and visitors, engaging alumni, and generating opportunities that reach far beyond the playing field.
When the financial model supporting college athletics becomes unstable, the ripple effects can be felt throughout higher education.
The goal should not be to advantage one conference, one institution, or one region over another. It should be to create a level playing field where success is determined by excellence, innovation, and responsible leadership — not by which state happens to have the most favorable legal environment.
America has long recognized that competition works best when everyone understands the rules and abides by them. College athletics should be no different.
This moment calls for leadership. A thoughtful federal framework will provide clarity for student-athletes, institutions, conferences, and fans while preserving what makes college sports unique: their connection to education, community, and opportunity.
College athletics has changed, and it will continue to evolve. That evolution should be guided by policies that strengthen — not weaken — the educational mission of our nation’s colleges and universities.
Congress has an opportunity to provide that leadership. For the sake of student-athletes, higher education institutions, and the millions of Americans who care deeply about college sports, it should seize it. A chance like this to enact meaningful and sustainable change may not present itself again.
Michael T. Benson is the 27th president of West Virginia University.
Read more from WVNews, here.
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