January 1, BETRAYAL: Why Some Conservatives Are Sabotaging the ONE Bill That Could Save Women’s Sports

Wyatt’s Take

• Conservative influencers are spreading lies about the Protect College Sports Act — a bill that actually preserves Title IX and state laws protecting women’s teams from biological males.
• Olympic sports programs are being slashed left and right while Washington insiders play politics instead of securing wins for female athletes and traditional sports.
• President Trump backs this legislation, and it’s time the America First movement stopped eating its own and delivered real victories for Middle America.

Men don’t belong in women’s sports. That’s not rocket science, but some conservative voices are making it complicated by spreading flat-out lies about legislation designed to protect college athletics.

Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl spent nearly five decades in college basketball. He knows the difference between winning a possession and winning the game.

Conservatives now face a similar choice: chase social media clout by attacking allies and spreading misinformation, or unite around the facts and win the larger fight for women, fairness and the future of college sports.

Some organizations and women’s-sports advocates claim the Protect College Sports Act would “gut” Title IX or invalidate state laws that reserve women’s teams for biological women. Dead wrong.

The text says the exact opposite.

Section 127 explicitly states that nothing in the bill will “override, modify, or amend” Title IX. Female athletes keep their current legal protections and ability to bring sex-discrimination claims.

Section 120 also protects athletes, employees and others from retaliation for reporting discrimination or participating in Title IX proceedings.

Critics also claim the bill would erase state laws keeping men out of women’s sports. Complete fiction.

The legislation establishes national standards for Division I and Division II competition on limited eligibility questions — academics, professional status, legal violations, age and years of eligibility. It neither creates a federal right for men to enter women’s competitions nor stomps on state laws establishing sex-based athletic categories.

The bill doesn’t create any federal right for biological males to compete in women’s sports, and Section 127 makes crystal clear that nothing overrides Title IX. Critics are grasping at straws, especially since the Supreme Court ruled in June that schools may keep men out of women’s sports.

The legislation also requires governing bodies to enforce rules related to state and federal law and allows individuals to sue when the law is violated.

Here’s the kicker: the bill gives schools a powerful incentive to invest in women’s and Olympic sports. It creates a $22.5 million athlete-retention fund and allows schools to unlock up to an additional $5 million through eligible NIL investments in women’s, Olympic and non-revenue sports.

A school seeking the full $27.5 million retention allowance would need to invest $5 million in those sports first. That’s a smart way to ensure programs that might otherwise get axed receive continued investment.

And every year Congress waits, the financial pressure on college athletics grows, and the programs with the fewest resources become even more vulnerable. Pearl’s 2025 Final Four team had a total NIL budget of approximately $4 million.

By the 2027 Final Four, some teams could be operating with budgets approaching $30 million.

Conservatives should debate legislation, demand improvements and scrutinize every line. But facts must guide us.

Too many Washington organizations would rather score points against perceived rivals than secure lasting victories for women and college athletes.

Outrage is easy. Turning shared principles into law is harder.

Infighting only helps the left, which has spent years undermining Title IX while conservatives battle over legislation that expressly preserves it. If conservatives can’t unite and get this done, we’ll lose college sports as we know them, and women’s and Olympic sports will be among the first casualties.

The stakes extend beyond Title IX, and the crisis is no longer theoretical. Thirty-two Division I Olympic-sports programs were cut between the announcement of the House settlement and May 2025.

More than 40 Division I Olympic-sports programs were eliminated between May 2024 and July 2025, even though 75% of American Olympians in 2024 competed in collegiate athletics.

Even the University of Arkansas, backed by SEC resources, announced plans to eliminate its tennis programs before donors intervened to save them. If programs at schools like Arkansas are vulnerable, imagine the danger facing smaller schools, women’s teams and non-revenue sports nationwide.

Credit where it’s due: Sens. Ted Cruz and Eric Schmitt and others have stepped up to move this legislation forward. President Trump has also led from the front by restoring the biological meaning of sex in federal policy, taking action to save college sports and backing this bill.

Now, those who claim to support the America First movement should get in the game, help Congress finish the job and deliver this win for women and college athletes.

Congress now has the opportunity to take important steps to stabilize college sports, support educational opportunities for young women and men, and provide protections for the uniquely American experience of intercollegiate athletics.

There’s broad agreement that college sports can’t survive with no meaningful guardrails around eligibility, transfer policy and NIL oversight. The Protect College Sports Act is an important step in the right direction, and Congress needs to keep the positive momentum moving forward.

“Winning the point may feel good. Winning the war matters more.”

Wyatt Matters

This is exactly what’s wrong with conservative politics today — too many folks more interested in Twitter dunks than actual wins. President Trump is backing this bill because it protects women’s sports and saves college athletics from the woke mob. If you’re attacking legislation Trump supports, maybe ask yourself who you’re really helping. Spoiler: it’s not working-class families who want their daughters to have fair competition and their sons to have Olympic sports programs. Stop the circular firing squad and start winning.