U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, has voiced strong opposition to the latest version of the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements (SCORE) Act. The House Rules Committee is expected to vote on whether to advance the bill to a full House vote.
Cantwell criticized the updated legislation, stating: “This is a David and Goliath fight. And the power 2 conferences are trying to rewrite the rules for the rest of colleges and universities that dictate playoff berths, control tv revenue and hold back athlete opportunities. Athletes and smaller schools should stop the new SCORE Act because the only ones scoring are private equity, a few big schools within the SEC and Big 10, and a few coaches with ridiculous payouts for nonperformance.”
The revised SCORE Act maintains provisions from its earlier version that have been widely criticized by athlete advocates, labor groups, antitrust experts, members of Congress, and organizations such as the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. According to Cantwell’s office, these provisions include repealing revenue share caps established in legal settlements like Grant House v. NCAA, reducing opportunities for women’s and Olympic sports, failing to bring new funding into college athletics, expanding NCAA authority over athlete rights, increasing dominance by major conferences such as the SEC and Big Ten in NCAA governance structures, restoring monopoly powers previously struck down by courts in cases like Alston v. NCAA, preempting state-level protections for athletes’ health and safety as well as contract enforcement rights under state law, granting additional antitrust immunity to the NCAA regarding revenue sharing limitations and education-related benefits for athletes, and explicitly barring student-athletes from being classified as employees—thus denying them labor law protections.
Senator Cantwell has been active in efforts aimed at reforming college sports policy. In September she introduced—with Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)—the Student Athlete Fairness and Enforcement (SAFE) Act intended to codify athletes’ rights into law while supporting all schools including women’s programs and Olympic sports. She has also participated in public warnings about potential negative impacts of SCORE on name-image-likeness rights (NIL), health protections for athletes, collective bargaining possibilities for student-athletes, women’s sports funding levels, vulnerability to agents exploiting students' lack of representation or protection.
Earlier this year Cantwell released a report detailing how increased media rights payments have widened financial disparities between top conferences—the SEC and Big Ten—and other institutions nationwide. She also contacted university leaders across more than 350 Division I programs warning about risks associated with SCORE’s passage.
