MILAN (NEXSTAR) - CEO Sarah Hirshland of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee is calling for federal legislation to protect Olympic and women's sports at the collegiate level. In an interview with sports reporter Jack Doles, Hirshland warned that shifting economic incentives toward college football are putting pressure on other broad-based sports programs. The United States currently relies on the NCAA system to develop elite athletes, a model Hirshland said is the envy of the world. However, she noted that the system is fracturing as schools prioritize football revenue, which could limit the "trickle up" of talent to Team USA. This concern comes as the U.S. prepares to host two of the next four Olympic Games, including the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles."We have the most robust system of sport in our country than any country in the world," Hirshland said during an interview with Nexstar in Milan. "But you can't take that for granted." She noted that schools are increasingly pressured to divert funds from Olympic and women's sports to support their football teams, which she said will ultimately limit opportunities and affect the development of Team USA. "Economically, we tend to invest where our economic incentives are based," Hirshland said. "And in the college system right now, the economic incentives are to invest in football." Hirshland stated that this shift in spending will have a "trickle down" effect on youth sports and a "trickle up" impact on the national Olympic team. She warned that if schools are only encouraged to invest in football, other programs will face cuts. "Inevitably, we're going to see some of these Olympic sports and women's sports on campuses be compromised," Hirshland said. To address these challenges, Hirshland proposed that the federal government step in to create uniform regulations. She argued that allowing individual states to create their own laws allows them to advantage themselves, whereas federal legislation could mandate proportionate investment in broad-based sports on every campus. "We need federal legislation that's going to create some regulation across the country to ensure that college sports is mandated to continue to have proportionate investment in broad-based sport on campus," Hirshland said. All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by Nexstar. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by Nexstar staff before being published