Five Congresses, Zero Federal NIL Laws. The SCORE Act Just Got Benched Again.
- $2.78BHouse v. NCAA settlement, approved by Judge Claudia Wilken (N.D. Cal.) June 6, 2025 — the antitrust class action that finally forced colleges to pay athletes.
- $20.5MPer-school revenue-sharing cap in Year 1 of the post-House era (2025-26) — increases 4% annually for 10 years. The dollar fact that broke the old NCAA model.
- 30+State NIL laws on the books — each one slightly different. The patchwork the SCORE Act tried to preempt with a single federal standard, before House Republicans pulled the floor vote.
- 10,000+Football players in the NCAA transfer portal during the 2025-26 cycle (Sen. Tuberville estimate). The competitive-imbalance fact driving Tuberville's Student Athlete Act of 2026.
- May 19, 2026Roll Call reports House GOP again pulled the SCORE Act floor vote. The bill cleared two House committees in July 2025. The Speaker said the votes were there. The floor vote did not happen.
- 0Federal college-sports laws on the books — five Congresses after the patchwork started, after Manchin-Tuberville (2023), Booker-Blumenthal (2020), and Bilirakis (2025).
On Monday, May 19, 2026, House Republican leadership again pulled the SCORE Act— the bipartisan federal college-sports bill from Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) that cleared two House committees in July 2025 — from a planned floor vote. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had publicly said the votes were there. The bill did not get a vote. Roll Callreported the postponement under a clean headline: “House NIL bill gets benched.”
National news aggregators on May 21 were still circulating an Associated Press wire headline dated July 25, 2023: ‘Manchin, Tuberville introduce college sports bill to standardize NIL rules, regulate collectives.’ The premise of that headline is no longer current. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat-turned-independent who co-authored the 2023 Protecting Athletes, Schools and Sports Act (PASS Act) with Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), retired from the U.S. Senate on January 3, 2025. The PASS Act died with the 118th Congress. The actual May 2026 fight is three different competing bills, an Executive Order, and two House committees that already did their work for a floor vote that didn't happen.
The underlying numbers are not in dispute. The House v. NCAA $2.78 billion antitrust settlement, approved by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken (N.D. Cal.) on June 6, 2025, ended the old NCAA model and opened a revenue-sharing era with a $20.5 million per-school annual cap. Thirty-plus states have their own NIL statutes. Over 10,000 football players are in the transfer portal. And yet, five Congresses after the patchwork started, the U.S. has zero federal college-sports laws on the books.
H.R. 4312, the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements Act, is a federal statute that would, in its broad outline, preempt the 30+ existing state NIL laws and replace them with a single national standard. Its structural choices are the ones the SAFE Act (the Senate Democratic counter-bill) rejects:
- Preempts state NIL laws. One federal standard, applied uniformly across every school.
- Preserves athletes' non-employee status. The structural ask of the NCAA and the conferences. Blocks the collective-bargaining/union pathway.
- Limited antitrust protections for the NCAA and conferences in setting NIL rules.
- New revenue/expenditure reporting requirements and a ‘pool limit’ cap tied to institutional athletics revenue.
- Restrictions on high-media-revenue schools using mandatory student fees to fund athletics.
The bill cleared the House Commerce, Manufacturing & Trade subcommittee July 15, 2025 and was ordered reported by both the full Energy & Commerce Committee and the Education & Workforce Committee on July 23. It had Republican-led cosponsors plus Democrats Janelle Bynum (D-OR) and Shomari Figures (D-AL). The first attempted floor vote, in December 2025, was pulled. The second attempt, in May 2026, was pulled.
Three pressure tracks have converged. First, the NAACP, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and the Congressional Black Caucus publicly opposed SCORE in May 2026 on Voting Rights Act and athlete-employee-status grounds, citing reporting in Reason. Second, the Democratic Senate caucus is committed to the SAFE Act framework, which preserves the collective-bargaining pathway and gives federal protection to the athletes-as-employees argument the SCORE Act blocks. Third, a parallel bipartisan track has emerged in the Senate between Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA) on Senate Commerce. The White House, per CBS Sports, has indicated it would support the Cruz-Cantwell product if it reaches the floor.
On March 24, 2026, Sen. Tuberville — former Auburn head football coach and the Republican most active on this beat — introduced his own, narrower legislation: S. 4177, the Student Athlete Act of 2026. S. 4177 doesn't try to do everything SCORE does. Its structure is two clean rules: five consecutive years of eligibility to play five seasons, and one free transfer; second transfer triggers a sit-out year. Tuberville's framing on his campaign account:
The transfer portal has screwed up college sports. My bill is simple: you get 5 consecutive years to play 5 seasons and you get 1 transfer. After that, if you transfer again, you sit out a year. This will fix 80% of the issues in NIL today.
“College athletics used to be about education. Now it's sadly all about making money. We can't be having 25-year-old 'students' who graduated three years ago still competing in the NCAA.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) · Student Athlete Act of 2026 announcement · March 24, 2026
On April 3, 2026, President Trump signed ‘Urgent National Action to Save College Sports,’an executive order that takes effect August 1, 2026 and applies to any school with $20 million or more in athletics revenue. The EO is the executive-branch workaround for the congressional dysfunction. The order references Title IX preservation, antitrust standards, and limits on third-party NIL collectives. It is not a substitute for legislation — an EO can be modified by the next administration, and a federal statute can't — but it is the de-facto policy floor while Congress sits on the ball.
College sports is being destroyed. The portal, the collectives, no rules, no enforcement — it can't continue. I am signing an Executive Order TODAY to save college football and college athletics. America deserves better than this NIL chaos!
Paraphrased commentary · not a verbatim post
Substance cross-referenced via White House Executive Order ‘Urgent National Action to Save College Sports’ April 3, 2026 and contemporaneous Fox News / CBS Sports coverage. Reproduced here for context; rendered as a buttonless static QuoteCard.
Coaches have been trying to coach a sport with no rules. My Student Athlete Act fixes that. We give athletes five years, one transfer, then they sit. Simple, fair, and the only way to save college football as we know it.
Paraphrased commentary · not a verbatim post
Tuberville framing on S. 4177, paraphrased from his March 24, 2026 press release and X campaign account. Rendered as a buttonless static QuoteCard.
The 2023 Manchin-Tuberville PASS Act was bipartisan and died. The 2020 Booker-Blumenthal College Athletes Bill of Rights was bipartisan-adjacent and died. The 2025 Bilirakis SCORE Act drew Democratic cosponsors and just got benched. The 2025 Cantwell-Booker-Blumenthal SAFE Act has not advanced. The 2026 Cruz-Cantwell talks are in draft. The Tuberville S. 4177 has no Senate Democratic cosponsor on record.
The structural disagreement is not whether to act — every senator, every commissioner, every named coach has said federal action is overdue. The disagreement is over the employee-status question: would a federal NIL law lock athletes in as non-employees (the SCORE Act / Tuberville position), or preserve the pathway to collective bargaining (the SAFE Act / Booker-Blumenthal position)? Until one side blinks on that, the bills bench themselves.
“Only Congress can adequately resolve these issues. The reality is, only Congress can fully address the challenges facing college athletics. The NCAA cannot fix all of these issues, the courts cannot resolve all of these issues. The states cannot resolve all of these issues, nor can the conferences.”
Greg Sankey · Southeastern Conference Commissioner · 2025 congressional testimony
“When I took this job, the message I heard from Congress was clear — fix what you control first. We're continuing to advocate for Congress to create national NIL guidelines that will protect student-athletes from exploitation, including the use of standard contracts.”
Charlie Baker · NCAA President (former R-MA Governor) · NCAA Convention
House sponsor (SCORE Act): Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL); cosponsors include Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) (E&C Chair), Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-OR), Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), Rep. Shomari Figures (D-AL).
Senate solo sponsor (Student Athlete Act of 2026): Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).
Senate Democratic counter (SAFE Act): Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).
Senate bipartisan track: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA).
White House: President Donald Trump (R)— signed April 3, 2026 EO; backs Cruz-Cantwell per CBS Sports.
NCAA: Charlie Baker, President (former R-MA Governor 2015-2023); has explicitly asked Congress to act since taking the job.
Opponents of SCORE: NAACP (Derrick Johnson); House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY); Congressional Black Caucus.
The 2023 PASS Act (Manchin-Tuberville) died in committee. Manchin retired January 2025.
The 2025 SCORE Act (Bilirakis) cleared two House committees, was queued for a floor vote in December 2025 and again in May 2026, and has been pulled both times.
The 2026 Student Athlete Act (Tuberville solo) is a narrower transfer-portal bill with no Senate Democratic cosponsor.
The Cantwell-Booker-Blumenthal SAFE Act is the Democratic counter-proposal preserving the collective-bargaining pathway.
The Cruz-Cantwell talks are the only vehicle the White House has explicitly backed.
The Executive Order takes effect August 1, 2026 and is the de-facto policy floor.
Five Congresses into the NIL era, the federal government has produced one executive order, one antitrust settlement, 30+ state laws, and zero federal statutes. The coaches, commissioners, and even the bills' sponsors agree Congress is the only place this can be fixed. Congress keeps not fixing it.