Proposed Legislation Seeks to Change College Sports Landscape

A new bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-Wash.) takes aim at the current college athletics landscape and proposes changes that target NIL, the transfer portal, and conference realignment. The bill, called the “Restore College Sports Act,” specifically targets areas of college athletics that the Congressman identified as in need of reform. The legislation would dissolve the NCAA and replace it with a new entity, the American College Sports Association. The ACSA would be run by a commissioner, appointed by the President and approved by Congress, who would oversee and regulate college sports. The bill also calls for a new revenue sharing model for NIL funds, which would involve pooling national NIL revenues and redistributing them equally to all student-athletes across the nation. Broadcast revenue would also be distributed equally among ASCA member institutions. Additionally, student athletes would have the ability to transfer schools without penalty or restrictions. The bill further proposes that all athletic conferences would be required to have members operating in the same time zone, in an effort to prevent cross county travel for in-conference games. Baumgarter asserts that this requirement would reduce travel burdens and prioritize the academic and physical well-being of the student-athletes. The legislation also addresses coaching salaries by essentially creating a cap that would limit the coaches salary to ten times the full cost of attendance for students at each institution. Baumgartner stated that his bill “reflected not only good policy, but good politics. . . The NCAA is a defunct and broken institution that nobody likes. You need to make elected officials accountable for these things, because it is in the public interest.”

Baumgartner’s bill is not the only legislation introduced in an effort to change college sports. Another bill, introduced by U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) would “prevent college athletes from being employees of their schools, conferences or an athletic association.” In 2023, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) introduced legislation to codify NIL rights in federal law. The College Athlete Economic Freedom Act emphasizes the rights and economic interests of college athletes. The bill proposes an unrestricted federal NIL right that the NCAA, conferences and colleges could not restrain; a requirements that media rights deal include group licenses on behalf of college athletes, who must be adequately compensated for their appearances; an amendment of the Immigration and Nationality Act to allow international college athletes attending colleges on F-1 visas to capitalize on their NIL without facing immigration consequences; and a prohibition of college and NIL collective practices that discriminate on the basis of gender, race, or sport. The same year, U.S. Senators Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and Joe Manchin (D-W. Va). introduced their own NIL bill, the Protecting Athletes, Schools, and Sports Act of 2023, which contemplates a more restrictive landscape for athletes’ NIL opportunities and a limitation on the transfer portal.

Despite interest from both parties, it's unlikely an NIL bill will pass anytime soon. Murphy “estimated the chances of Congress passing NIL-related legislation before the end of 2026 are close to zero.”

Cassandra Devaney is a graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law.