All four power conference commissioners were in Washington, D.C. Wednesday for the scheduled vote for the NCAA and power conference backed SCORE Act. The expectation was that commissioners would take a victory lap—after six years spending millions of dollars on lobbying along with the NCAA, they would finally get a bill passed through one house of Congress.
Instead, they’ll leave the Capitol without their prize.
The vote on the SCORE Act, planned for Wednesday evening, never happened. House Republican leadership first delayed the vote in the afternoon. It has now been delayed indefinitely, sources confirmed to Front Office Sports.
One Congressional aide told FOS that Republican leadership hopes they could revisit it. Other sources, however, told FOS they don’t think the bill will ever make it to the House floor.
FOS spoke with multiple sources who described the factors leading to the death of a bill already seen as relatively partisan. The soap opera surrounding Lane Kiffin was one contributing factor. Sources also pointed to unexpectedly strong Democratic opposition; a successful meeting to convince members of the Congressional Black Caucus to vote no; and internal party dynamics plaguing Republican leadership.
“I think pulling this [bill] should be a turning point,” Rep. Lori Trahan (D., Mass) told FOS Thursday. “Dozens of Democrats stand ready to negotiate in good faith. … I’m hopeful that folks come back to the table and really work earnestly on a durable solution,” added Trahan, who has been involved in drafting college sports legislation for the past few years and has been a vocal critic of the SCORE Act.
A representative for the power conference commissioners did not respond to a request for comment, nor did an NCAA representative.
A Perfect Storm
In July, House Republicans—as well as two Democratic co-sponsors—introduced the SCORE Act, which aligns with the NCAA and power conferences’ demands. The bill provides antitrust protections to lawsuits challenging various NCAA rules, from compensation restrictions to eligibility provisions; grants a preemption to override state NIL (name, image, and likeness) laws; and prevents athletes from gaining employee status. It also puts in place new regulations for agents, imposes minimums for how many sports programs a school must sponsor, and codifies the revenue-sharing terms of the House v. NCAA settlement.
In August, the bill made it through two House committee markups, and Republican leadership planned to introduce the bill for a vote in September. They needed a simple majority of 218 votes.
A week before the vote was tentatively scheduled, however, leaders canceled it. Texas Tech booster and billionaire Cody Campbell had convinced several Republican lawmakers to vote against the bill. House leadership was unable to flip Democrats in the Congressional Black Caucus, who they were targeting to replace Republican defectors.
By Thanksgiving, however, leadership planned to bring the SCORE Act to the House floor. The White House was amenable and Republicans were confident the vote would be successful, sources said. (The White House publicly endorsed the bill Tuesday—and Campbell, a Trump ally, echoed his general approval.)
But then, Lane Kiffin decided to leave Ole Miss for LSU (and a seven-year, $91 million contract)—spotlighting both the unrelenting coaching carousel spinning chaos across college football and the hundreds of millions of dollars schools spent on buyouts. It wasn’t a good look for the SCORE Act, proposed as the solution meant to bring stability to college sports—and it didn’t address the coaching carousel at all.
“What we just saw unfold with Lane Kiffin is an absolute abomination,” Rep. Chip Roy (R., Texas), said Monday night during a Rules Committee hearing. “If we’re going to intervene, maybe we should fully intervene. Maybe we should fix the damn mess.”
Roy was already against the SCORE Act. But the Kiffin saga was top of mind for lawmakers across the political spectrum, two sources said.
Then, Democrats came out swinging. On Monday morning, Trahan introduced a new bill called the College Athletics Reform Act. The bill’s timing was key, one lobbyist told FOS, as it offered an alternative to the SCORE Act for House Democrats to sign onto. On Tuesday, the minority whip issued a formal declaration that Democrats should vote no.
Things continued to go downhill for House leadership Tuesday night, when they narrowly passed the bill through a procedural vote to send it to the House floor, with a vote count of 210-209. Along with some Republican detractors, members of the Freedom Caucus declined to vote at first; finally, two members agreed to vote in favor in order to have it pass the procedural vote.
An ‘Embarrassing’ Result
Still, Republicans proceeded, planning to introduce the SCORE Act as part of a Wednesday afternoon voting session beginning around 4 p.m. ET. But leadership was still whipping votes Wednesday morning and early afternoon, sources said. There were a little more than a dozen Republicans who were voting no or leaning no, the first aide said, who they were trying to flip.
Progress wasn’t being made with Democrats, either. The CBC, a previous target of lobbyists and Republican leadership to find Democrats who could vote yes, met with athlete advocacy group Athletes.org (AO). During the meeting, former NFL player and AO co-founder Brandon Copeland urged the caucus to vote no, Copeland told FOS. Copeland said he helped change some minds. “I think that there were definitely some people on the fence in the room,” he said.
The CBC then issued a rare public statement condemning the bill, which went out just minutes after House members were alerted the vote had been postponed.
At first, the hope was that one more night was all that was needed to whip enough votes, the first aide said Wednesday. The news of an indefinite postponement came later that night.
“If the Commissioner of the Big 10 would spend LESS money trying to buy votes w DC lobbyists and make MORE of an effort to STOP being a bullying jackass, then Congress could get on with passing some reasonable legislation to fix college sports,” Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R., Wash.) —who has been opposed to the bill from the start—posted on X.
The SCORE Act’s fate is unclear. Either way, it’s expected to die in the Senate—or only be viable after major surgery, sources on both sides of the aisle agreed.
Meanwhile, the NCAA and conference lobbying efforts look more and more futile. Zero bills have reached either floor of Congress, and a SCORE Act vote has now been delayed two times due to a lack of support.
“In Washington terms, I don’t even have an appropriate analogy,” the lobbyist said. “If you’re the conferences, you spent tens of millions of dollars to try to get to this point. And to not even be able to get a vote—and to have it slip through your fingers like this—is incredibly embarrassing.”
