Shutterstock
College sports fans waiting for Congress to solve the NIL chaos shouldn’t get their hopes up anytime soon.
Three Senate Democrats made it crystal clear Tuesday that the SCORE Act — the bill backed by the NCAA and Power Four conferences — is essentially dead on arrival in the Senate. “I can pretty well guarantee the SCORE Act ain’t going to make it through the United States Senate,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal said bluntly during a Zoom conference call.
Sen. Maria Cantwell didn’t mince words about who’s benefiting from the current situation: “The SCORE Act is really… not what we think is for the athlete, let’s just put it that way. It is not the solution for the athlete. You can say there’s a lot of people scoring. Two big divisions and their commissioners, they are scoring. The NCAA, they’re scoring. And now, apparently, private equity is scoring. Who is not scoring? The athletes.”
NCAA president Charlie Baker recently claimed the SCORE Act had a “pretty good chance of making it through the House at some point.” While the bill has made it out of committee, it hasn’t even been introduced for a formal House vote yet.
The math simply doesn’t work in the Senate.
Even if the Republican-controlled House passes the bill, it would need 60 votes in the Senate — meaning at least seven Democrats would need to cross party lines. That’s been viewed as a pipe dream from the start.
House v. NCAA settlement approved: Landmark decision opens door for revenue sharing in college athletics
The Democratic senators are backing their own legislation — the SAFE Act — which would amend the Sports Broadcasting Act to allow college conferences to pool broadcasting rights. Texas Tech billionaire booster Cody Campbell has poured serious cash into TV ads opposing the SCORE Act and supporting this alternative.
But here’s the catch: pooling TV rights is absolutely unacceptable to power conferences like the SEC and Big Ten, who’ve built massive media empires through exclusive deals.
The SAFE Act faces its own uphill battle. While Cantwell is the ranking member of the Senate Commerce committee, Sen. Ted Cruz controls the group as chairman and has shown little interest in moving the Democrats’ bill forward.
“Quite frankly, we’ve made no headway or at least very minimal progress with (Cruz), which is why I think he’s advancing the SCORE Act in the way that he is,” Blumenthal admitted.
Beyond broadcasting rights, the SAFE Act would provide significant athlete protections — guaranteeing scholarships for 10 years after eligibility ends, requiring five years of post-eligibility medical coverage, capping agent fees at 5%, and limiting athletes to two transfers.
The bill has earned strong backing from professional sports unions, with representatives from the NBA, NFL, and NSWL players associations joining Tuesday’s call.
Meanwhile, the SCORE Act focuses on different priorities — codifying the House settlement terms, explicitly prohibiting athletes from becoming employees, creating a national NIL standard, and providing the antitrust exemption the NCAA desperately wants. If you watch college football, you’ve probably seen those SEC commercials urging you to support this legislation.
Both parties agree something must be done to address college sports’ current chaos. The question remains whether they can find enough middle ground on these divisive issues before the 2026 midterms. Blumenthal emphasized that “nothing will pass if it is purely partisan.”
With the current political climate and competing interests, don’t expect a congressional fix anytime soon.
