H.R. 2688 — Protecting Student Athletes’ Economic Freedom Act of 2025

This section prohibits classifying a student athlete (or former student athlete) as an employee of an institution, conference, or association under any federal or state law or regulation based on the athlete's participation in a varsity intercollegiate athletics program or competition, or on rules or requirements for varsity sports team membership. (Thus, student athletes are ineligible for employee protections such as minimum wage, overtime pay, or unionization rights under those laws.)

This section defines seven terms for purposes of the Act: (1) association (i.e., an organization with multiple conferences and institutions as members that arranges championships and sets rules for varsity intercollegiate athletics programs but is not a conference); (2) conference (i.e., an organization with multiple institutions as members that sets rules for and arranges championships for varsity intercollegiate athletics programs but is not an association); (3) institution (i.e., an institution of higher education, as defined in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001), that sponsors a varsity intercollegiate athletics program in the United States); (4) student athlete (i.e., an individual who participates in a varsity intercollegiate athletics program); (5) varsity intercollegiate athletics competition (i.e., a competition involving two or more varsity intercollegiate athletics programs sponsored by different institutions); (6) varsity intercollegiate athletics program (i.e., a team or program unit of an institution participating in a sport played at the intercollegiate level, administered by an athletic department, and for which eligibility requirements are established by an association); and (7) varsity sports team (i.e., a team of student athletes organized by a varsity intercollegiate athletics program to participate in a varsity intercollegiate athletics competition, excluding intramural or club teams).