WASHINGTON — A bill to regulate college sports introduced in the House on Thursday would offer limited antitrust protection for the NCAA, while barring schools from using student fees to pay for college athletic programs.
Co-sponsors of the SCORE Act includes seven Republicans and two Democrats, which gives the bill a fair chance of passage in the House. It would need at least seven Democratic votes in the Senate, where its chances are viewed as slim.
The bill includes the three elements the NCAA has lobbied for: antitrust protections, pre-emption of state laws that regulate name, image, likeness payments, and a section that prevents athletes from becoming employees of their schools.
The bill’s main goal is to set national standards for NIL payments that are dominating the industry in the wake of the approval of a $2.78 billion lawsuit settlement that allows schools to pay athletes.
It also includes a section that purports to protect Olympic programs that some see as threatened because of increased funding that will go to football and basketball. That part calls on schools with at least one coach who earns more than $250,000 to offer at least 16 sports programs. That language mirrors a rule already in effect for NCAA’s top-tier FBS schools.
The ban on using fees to offset costs strikes to the core of some schools’ plans to fund athletic programs, which are looking at ways to pay for the up to $20.5 million they’ll share with athletes.
Clemson earlier this year announced it would implement a $150 “athletic fee” each semester for students starting this fall. Fresno State approved fees of an additional $495 a year, about half of which is to be directed toward athletics.
Other schools, like Tennessee, have announced a “talent fee” to be added to season-ticket renewals. Arkansas is increasing concession prices and many more schools are informing boosters about the increasing price tag for the sports programs they support.
