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12/02 16:15 CST White House, Olympic leaders lend support to SCORE Act to
regulate college sports
White House, Olympic leaders lend support to SCORE Act to regulate college
sports
By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer
The White House and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee each lent support
Tuesday for a bill designed to regulate college sports that has been criticized
by opponents as a giveaway to the NCAA and its most powerful schools.
The House is expected to vote on the SCORE Act later this week. The NCAA-backed
legislation has broad support from Republicans but is widely disliked by
Democrats, who would need to provide at least seven votes for it to pass in the
Senate.
A statement from the White House said the administration supports the bill.
"Urgent federal action is necessary to provide the stability, fairness and
balance that will protect student-athletes and preserve collegiate athletic
opportunities," it said.
A key critic is Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who has co-sponsored a competing
bill and called the battle over the SCORE act "a David and Goliath fight" in
which she says the two biggest conferences, the SEC and Big Ten, will end up
with most of the power if SCORE is passed.
Cantwell told The Associated Press that some late changes in the bill made it
worse than the original draft. One that stood out to her was a clause that
gives the newly created College Sports Commission full authority to resolve
disputes about payments from third-party companies to players, and prohibits
players from seeking remedies outside the new system.
"It's safe to say there's a lot buried in here that people don't know or didn't
see or never went through the committee process," Cantwell said.
The USOPC had withheld its support, seeking changes that would bolster Olympic
sports.
Though the types of changes the committee's leadership advocated were not
placed into the House version of the bill, the USOPC signaled its support,
saying it was ready to work with Senate leaders and others to "build a model
that supports Olympic and Paralympic sport and reinforces the critical role
college programs play in developing student-athletes."
The NCAA and Division I conferences portray the bill as placing into law the
rules created by the multibillion-dollar lawsuit settlement that allows college
players to be paid.
The NCAA lobbied for three key elements in the bill: antitrust protections,
pre-emption of state laws that regulate the payments to players, and a section
that prevents athletes from becoming employees of their schools.
Those elements remain in the slightly revised version of the bill that will be
debated Wednesday and could be voted on the same day.
Action on a procedural vote in the House to advance the bill Tuesday
underscored the still-tenuous prospects for the legislation. After Republicans
openly debated the bill on the floor, it was narrowly advanced to a final vote
by just a single vote margin.
"There's some people that have issues with the NCAA. That have issues that they
don't want the federal government to have to get involved in this," said House
Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
One notable addition to the latest version of the act was a clause prohibiting
state attorney generals or other state officials from bringing civil action
against the CSC before exhausting all arbitration and other remedies offered by
the CSC.
Last month, the CSC sent out a contract that included similar language. The
commission needs all 68 teams from Power Four conferences to sign the contract
for it to go into effect.
But last week, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton sent out guidance to schools
in his state urging them not to sign the CSC document, calling it "an egregious
attempt to insulate CSC from legal challenges."
"No entity should be allowed to arbitrarily give itself the type of legal
immunity CSC is pursuing, especially by putting colleges and universities in
the crosshairs," Paxton said.
The bill appeared headed for passage over the summer, but hit roadblocks among
Republican members who represented states with smaller Division I schools.
The NCAA negotiated to help those schools retain some of their decision-making
power when it came to membership standards for Division I schools. That was
part of an overhaul of its governance structure that helped open the door to
the conferences supporting the legislation.
"The SCORE Act will establish stability and return national standards to
college sports while supporting universities' educational mission," SEC
commissioner Greg Sankey said.
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AP Congressional reporter Joey Cappelletti in Washington contributed.
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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
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