The SCORE Act Fumbles College-Athlete Rights

College sports are at a turning point. After years of legal fights and long-overdue victories, college-athletes are finally starting to receive recognition and compensation for the value they bring to billion-dollar programs. But just as real progress is being made, Congress is considering a bill that threatens to turn back the clock.

That’s why Sports Fans Coalition joined our partners in sending a letter to Congress opposing the antitrust exemption in the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements (SCORE) Act. While the bill claims to protect college-athletes, it’s actually a Trojan horse for the NCAA and the powerful institutions that benefit from the current imbalance. Simply put: the SCORE Act would cement the NCAA’s control, limit athlete rights, and suppress competition in the name of “compliance.”

Supporters of the SCORE Act insist that the antitrust exemption it grants is limited. They argue it only protects actions taken in “compliance” with the bill. But even that narrow protection is far too generous. Just like Football, antitrust is a game of inches and history shows that when you give the NCAA an inch, they take a mile. 

In practice, this exemption could shield the NCAA and its member schools from legal consequences for rules that restrict athlete compensation, limit transfers, or standardize recruitment practices. Even advertisers could be immunized for suppressing NIL payments, so long as it’s framed as following the rules.

The free pass Congress wants to give the NCAA isn’t the only problem with the bill. Nowhere is the bill’s flawed logic more obvious than in its treatment of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rights. The SCORE Act allows schools to prohibit NIL deals unless the payment is  considered fair market value when compared to a non-athlete. How can you compare the NIL value of the star quarterback to the drum major of the marching band? You can’t. The market value of college athletes’ NIL is their athletic identity. Stripping that away makes the whole concept meaningless—and unworkable.

The bill also enables schools to collect and publish “aggregated and anonymized” NIL data. While that might sound like a transparency win, in reality it opens the door to pricing algorithms and standardization. In other words: price fixing. This data could be packaged and sold to NIL collectives and advertisers to suppress athlete earnings. It’s not hard to imagine a future where college athletes are stuck with algorithm-driven rate cards because the law said it was okay.

Another red flag: the bill allows college-athletes to transfer schools only once. That’s a significant rollback of current legal standards. It’s not just bad policy—it would directly nullify a Department of Justice consent decree that protects athlete movement. Free agency is a cornerstone of labor rights. If a student is benched, mistreated, or wants a better opportunity, they should have the freedom to move. This restriction slams that door shut.

Let’s not be fooled by the SCORE Act’s clever acronym. The bill doesn’t promote “opportunity,” it preserves power. It doesn’t support college-athletes, it sidelines them. It’s a calculated attempt to roll back hard-won progress under the guise of “preserving amateurism.” Sports Fans Coalition believes college-athletes deserve rights, freedom, and a fair share of the value they create. We urge Congress to strip away the antitrust exemption in the bill and then enact real reforms that protect college athletes over the NCAA.