FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – If there is any coach in college athletics who has been a full supporter of the Protect College Sports Act it's Arkansas men's basketball coach John Calipari.
The third-year Razorbacks coach was in Washington D.C. on Monday to provide his input as to why PCSA of 2026 is pivotal to the future of ameturism in American college sports. Introduced to the Senate in June 2026 by Texas senator Ted Cruz, the bill is meant to establishes requirements for name, image, or likeness (NIL) agreements for college student athletes, according to Congress.
Although last summer's House Settlement provided guidelines for a cap on revenue sharing off media rights and other court-approved agreements, the PCSA is set to provide antitrust exemptions for schools and conferences to settle competitive imbalance of college sports.
Coach Cal sounds the alarm on private equity coming for college sports pic.twitter.com/VjPHYeRcFG
– Darren Botelho (@DarrenBotelho) September 14, 2026
With the introduction of private equity agreements by the University of Utah during the offseason, Otro Capital currently has financial stake in all Utes athletic programs. That's something Calipari doesn't want to see run rampant around the country.
"Let's just say, private equity takes over your program. Private equity's gonna look at, 'what are the losers?'" Calipari said on Monday . "They're not losers. We're teaching leadership. We're teaching future business leaders, leaders of our country. 'Well, yeah, but that program doesn't make money.'
"This is not a normal business. Everyone acts like it is with the way it is now, it's football carrying all the sports. I think if we do this, 75% of our issues are gonna be gone. It doesn't mean we don't have things to do in the future. We do, we need something right now."
There are parts of the bill that Calipari has constantly harped about during postgame press conference and interviews on national television. He has remained consistent with his forward thinking, as seventh and eighth year college athletes continued to populate the sport.
"There are a lot of older gentlemen with beards playing basketball in college right now," Calipari said last December after a victory in Little Rock over Fresno State. "The one that's crazy, the guy comes in, and he's waving to his kids up in the seats. And you're like, 'Wait a minute. The guy's got two kids. He's still playing college basketball.'
"Crazy thing. He's using NIL for his first wife's alimony, and now he's still playing college basketball. Are we nuts?"
Calipari went against the rave of the transfer portal this offseason, and focused more on buiding his roster around many of the top freshmen in the country. Arkansas signed No. 2 overall prospect and Gatorade National Player of the Year Jordan Smith, Jr., along with top European prospect Miikka Muurinen, and other 5-star guards JJ Andrews and Abdou Toure.
"Well, I got engaged in this when I was getting calls from high school coaches and families that there weren't scholarships being offered," Calipari told CBS. "There's seven or 800 kids in high school not being offered scholarships because we were recruiting older players. They were waiting on all the transfers.
"They were recruiting European players, and that caused me to say, "Wait a minute, we got some issues here. We got to deal with. And this bill, the reason I'm for it, gives the kids five years, but there's no waivers."
There have been professional athletes who have previously declared for the NBA Draft returning to college because their post-college basketball careers haven't quite panned out as planned either.
Rep. Tim Walberg and Sen. Jon Husted are introducing a bill that limits the amount of international athletes on a college sports roster to 20%.
The bill is called ''Training and Education for American Members in University Sports and Athletics Act."
Or… the TEAM USA Act. pic.twitter.com/OxDoQj2VRo
– Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) September 14, 2026
"Treating European players the same as American players. If you put your name in the draft and stay, you can't play in college," Calipari said. "If you get drafted, you can't play in college."
Obviously, there are some gray areas that could keep Arkansas players such as Muurinen, Ilia Frolov, Paulo Semedo and Maper Maker off the floor this season. But it's hard to see Calipari supporting the bill if it didn't impact his roster in some capacity.
"You've got five years. You got one time to transfer, unless you're coach [leaves]" Calipari continued. "If you're 19 or younger, you're an amateur. Let's go. Let's get this back. Let's have guardrails, and that's why I'm for it."
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/arkansas as Razorbacks' Calipari Continues Support of Protect College Sports Act.