House Republicans are delaying a vote on the NCAA-backed bill, the SCORE Act, because they do not believe they have enough votes to pass it, Front Office Sports confirmed with multiple sources.
CBS Sports was first to report the news.
The SCORE Act, which House Republicans wanted to bring to the floor for a vote next week, satisfies all the issues on the NCAA and power conferences’ wishlist—including deeming athletes amateurs and gaining antitrust protections to fight off lawsuits.
For the past several days, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and lobbyists for the NCAA and power conferences have been working to ensure the bill had enough votes to pass the House, FOS reported. Currently, the House has a slim, six-person Republican majority.
At first, it appeared the bill could pass mostly along party lines. They even had a cushion, as five House Democrats had even signed onto the bill as co-sponsors.
But on Sunday night, several House Republicans criticized the bill. One of the representatives, Lance Gooden (R., Texas) had even been a previous co-sponsor of the bill. The reason Republicans flipped, according to multiple sources: They were swayed by Texas Tech booster and oil billionaire Cody Campbell, who has launched his own lobbying effort focusing on college sports. Campbell is in favor of some of the provisions in the SCORE Act, but thinks Congress should establish a separate body to replace the NCAA, and amend the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961. President Donald Trump appointed Campbell to his Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition.
One Congressional aide told FOS that House Republicans, led by Scalise, made progress toward a deal with lawmakers who had backed away from supporting the SCORE Act at the behest of Campbell.
According to another source, the deal made changes to the bill, which would modify the Sports Broadcasting Act to include college sports and create a new governing body to replace the NCAA. That source said Scalise was open to it, but power conference leaders weren’t in favor of it.
To replace these Republican votes, the lobbying efforts targeted the Congressional Black Caucus, sources said, with conferences representing Historically Black Colleges and Universities—the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conferences and the Southwestern Athletic Conferneces—doing their own outreach. There was potentially a deal on the table for a number of Democratic members in the CBC to vote in favor of the bill, the aforementioned Congressional aide said, but that deal ultimately didn’t materialize.
It appears the powerful NCAA and power conference lobby was unsuccessful—for now. The efforts are expected to continue in the weeks ahead, including with the CBC.
