The booming business of college sports is getting out of control, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree, but whether Congress should intervene and how to effectively level the playing field between premier universities and smaller schools is a heated debate on Capitol Hill.

The stalemate was highlighted last week by the death of the SCORE Act, a bill designed to regulate the compensation college student-athletes earn from their name, image and likeness (NIL), after several hard-line conservatives in the lower chamber expressed opposition.

The debate over NIL in college football reached a new inflection point when former Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin left Oxford for its conference rival Louisiana State University (LSU), a decision Kiffin said was in part driven by LSU’s ability to lure more and better recruits with NIL opportunities.

Kiffin’s decision angered not just the Ole Miss faithful, but fans of college football across the country who say his ditching of the playoff-bound team he spent six seasons building is emblematic of a broken system where coaches and athletes chase paydays over school pride, eroding competitive balance and disrespecting longstanding cultures in intercollegiate athletics.

The SCORE Act would have perpetuated this phenomenon, critics said, arguing it would not have done enough to scale back how easily major schools like LSU can run away in the NIL race.

“Nobody wants a college ecosystem where the majority of schools are serving as feeder programs to the top conferences and everyone else is getting left behind,” Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), who opposed the bill, told The Hill. “Nobody wants more Lane Kiffins … where you have the exorbitant buyouts and contracts that are frankly unfair compared to the restrictions the NCAA puts on athletes.”

NIL does not allow for schools to pay athletes directly, but it provides a system where high-profile athletes receive training, advice, counsel and connections to sponsorship deals and marketing opportunities using their name, image and likeness.

The net result is universities that play more frequently on national television and in marquee games yield greater exposure for recruits who are looking to monetize their status on top teams.

This has been most acute in college football, which generates more than an estimated $1.3 billion in revenue for the NCAA and its member schools each season.

One of the SCORE Act’s most vocal detractors, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), called the proposed legislation “well intentioned” but not “ready for prime time,” while others likened it to a “bailout” of the NCAA.

Roy, during an interview with The Hill, blasted the nationwide dash to establish NIL supremacy and called out the 2023 firing of Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher, who received a record buyout totaling more than $70 million, as indicative of an arms race in college football that has run amok.

“These are institutions that have the public trust. It’s absurd we have Jimbo Fisher being paid tens of millions of dollars to not coach football,” Roy said on the steps of the Capitol.

“There has to be a role for Congress in dealing with the antitrust issue. … What I don’t want to do is perpetuate the madness of the University of California, Berkeley, being in the ACC [Atlantic Coast Conference] and forcing athletes to travel across the continent so that rich people can watch sports in different time zones on TV. It’s asinine.”

Roy is not alone in his frustration, and his anger with the corporatization of college sports is reflective of the feelings of an increasingly vocal majority of fans, players and coaches across the country.

The NCAA’s relatively new rules on NIL, which went into effect in 2021, instantly changed the college athletics landscape, particularly within football programs and among major revenue-generating conferences like the Southeastern Conference, Big Ten and the ACC.

It cleared the way for top universities with vast donor bases and deep pockets to use the promise of hundreds of millions of dollars in marketing money to lure top recruits as they look to cash in on lucrative media rights agreements and sponsorship deals.

A recent tally from Sports Illustrated listed marquee college football powerhouses like Texas, Ohio State and Oregon as the top destinations for recruits and transfers looking for NIL deals.

The transfer portal in college football, which allows players to hop from one school to another to earn more pay or receive more playing time, has led fans to complain that athletes are prioritizing their personal brand or bottom line over a school’s legacy, traditions and rivalries.

“College sports actually ran a lot better when they were paying the kids under the table,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told The Hill. “This thing is a disaster. All we’re going to do is mess it up. Congress can’t pour water out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel.”

Trahan, a former Division 1 volleyball player, is trying to chart a path forward, pitching legislation of her own that she argues would address NIL’s threats to nonrevenue generating sports, such as Olympic and women’s sports.

If Congress is to pass legislation regulating NIL, President Trump’s White House has signaled he is eager to sign it.

As part of an executive order he signed this summer, Trump wrote “college sports is under unprecedented threat” from NIL and vowed to “provide the stability, fairness, and balance necessary to protect student-athletes, collegiate athletic scholarships and opportunities, and the special American institution of college sports.”

But others see federal lawmakers attempting to slow down the NIL race as premature if not an overreach that sends a bad message to the American people about Congress’s priorities.

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who also voiced opposition to the SCORE Act, seemed to suggest he is OK with big time schools using their massive exposure to land top recruits.

“Congress’s job is not to create parity in athletics,” Donalds said. “We have other things to do … it’s true NIL has changed the game … but as of now, I don’t think we should touch it.”

Jocks on the Hill: Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.)

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who one year won five national college football coach of the year awards before he became a U.S. senator, answered some sports questions for The Hill.

Favorite team: “I’ve been a fan, probably longer than anything, of the Dallas Cowboys.”

Favorite sport: “Golf. I’m a big golfer. You can play by yourself or against people. It’s something you can do from the time you’re 6, 7 years old all the way ‘til basically your death bed. I’ve always said you can find out more about someone during a round of golf than you can any other situation.”

****What athlete did you look up to the most when growing up? “Probably Roger Staubach. He was a Christian, he did his service in the military, and was such a mentor to thousands of us that worshiped him as an athlete, as a person and an American.”

**Is there a team you hate? **“I better pass on that … I really don’t despise any because I’m so competitive I just appreciate people wanted to compete, so it’s hard to hate anybody to where you have a grudge against ‘em.”

**What sports or politics cliche resonates the most with you? **“Communication is key. It’s no different than when I was a coach, I played games on Saturday and you play games up here [on Capitol Hill] every day. The best way for success is to be able to sell yourself and communicate. It’s all about sales and people have to trust you.”

**Extra Points **

— The College Football Playoff field was set on Sunday, and Vanderbilt, like Notre Dame and BYU, was left is on the outside looking in. That led Commodores quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Diego Pavia to appeal to President Trump, asking him to “sign an executive order” expanding the College Football Playoff to 16 teams. While the president has no direct power over the NCAA, the idea of more big-time games in more time slots is surely one television executives across the country wouldn’t be opposed to.

— Chatter about Lane Kiffin’s decision to ditch Ole Miss for LSU before finishing the Rebels seasonfilled the halls of Congress this week, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) dubbing the SCORE Act the “Lane Kiffin Protection Act” and blasting the coach for “abandoning” his players and staff.

— Trumpwas awarded the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize on Friday as the Kennedy Center hosted the 2026 World Cup draw. It came as the president has sought to cast himself as a “president of peace” in recent weeks, implementing his name on the U.S. Institute of Peace and repeatedly arguing his administration has ended more than a half dozen global wars.

— The president hosted NHL legend Wayne Gretzky, LIV Golfer Brooks Koepka and Fox News anchor Bret Baier for a round of golf at Mar-a-Lago over the holiday weekend in Florida. Frequent critics of the network and the president raised issue with the ethical appearances of a top news anchor recreating with the leader of the free world, though Baier has previously said he, or any journalist, would not be wise to turn down a chance “to pick the brain of the commander in chief, the president who’s making these big decisions, in an environment that is more relaxed.”

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