Members of the U.S. House of Representatives formally introduced an amended college sports bill on Thursday that will change the NCAA’s landscape if ultimately passed into law.
The SCORE Act (Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements) is designed to “protect the name, image, and likeness rights of student athletes to promote fair compensation with respect to intercollegiate athletics, and for other purposes.”
The Act codifies the House settlement, grants liability protection, preempts state NIL laws and includes an anti-employment clause, according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger.
Members of the U.S. House are planning, as soon as Thursday, to introduce an amended college sports bill (SCORE Act), sources tell @YahooSports.
Though opposed by many Democrats, the Act is on track to progress further than any all-encompassing athlete compensation legislation. pic.twitter.com/Xt1zUsSIUr
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) July 10, 2025
The Act also includes regulations for agents representing college athletes, prevents schools from revoking scholarships due to injury or performance, mandates schools to provide specific levels of academic support and out-of-pocket healthcare coverage for ex-athletes up to three years after leaving school, requires schools to have a minimum of 16 varsity teams, and has restrictions on using student fees for athletics, according to CBS Sports.
The bill was introduced in the House by Florida’s Gus Bilirakis, a Republican, and two Democrats, Oregon’s Janelle Bynum and Alabama’s Shomari Figures, showing bipartisanship. However, the bill has reportedly being largely opposed by the Democratic party.
The bill is expected to pass through the House easily, but will require seven Democratic votes to pass through the Senate, given it needs 60 votes to advance.
Dellenger added that the bill “prohibits athlete compensation that may put schools over” the new revenue sharing cap of $20.5 million and “requires all NIL deals hold a ‘valid business purpose’ and align with NIL Go’s fair market value compensation range and the College Sports Commission’s anti-circumvention rules.”
“Another interesting one here: Schools that earn at least $50 million annually in media rights revenue are not permitted to use student fees to support their athletic programs – a concept that would chiefly impact schools in the Big Ten and SEC,” Dellenger wrote on X.
“The Act permits schools to restrict athlete NIL deals if they violate the university’s code of conduct or conflict with any existing school agreement, such as an athlete striking a deal with Nike while playing for an Adidas school.”
Two bill “markups” are planned for later this month, he said.
Brilliant legislation package with few caveats, although the incongruent cap versus institutional limit could backfire.
The party of small government and minimum government outreach.
Meanwhile, critical government institutions are outstripped, like National Weather Service, and then the same Republicans blamed NWS for Texas flooding.
The bill was lead/sponsored and introduced by Gus Bilirakis (FL-12, R). Bynum and Figures were co-sponsors. The point was that it was bipartisan.
“…the bill “prohibits athlete compensation that may put schools over” the new revenue sharing cap of $20.5 million”…. so when football needs to pay more in NIL, but is at the cap, do they tell a non-revenue athlete they no longer can have an NIL deal bc that amount of the cap needs to go to football? Just speaking reality here.
Exactly… Those Non-revenue sports will be cut to allow more NIL for Football and Basketball.
Isn’t the revenue sharing cap separate from NIL money?
Aren’t they completely different things?
Sooooo universities are locked in to an athlete yet the athlete has no accountability being held to them?
Kids can transfer whenever they want, performance let alone competing can be non existent, injuries that occur (because they do happen in non athletic settings) AND still be guaranteed everything by the school.
Does this not seem like it’s getting a little a ridiculous?
Part of the bill includes only allowing for one transfer essentially.
This does nothing but kill swimming and other non revenue sports.
The gap between the midmajor schools and power4 will widen.
Hard to imagine it going through, but time will tell. They do have an interesting thing in there about mandating each school has to carry a minimum of 16 sports. This may seem small for the big programs, but for mid-majors, I would think many don’t have 16. Surprised that didn’t make the article as that could have the biggest impact on swimming (at least potentially helping at the mid-major level)…