Proposed Federal Legislation Seeks to Eliminate the NCAA

By: Gregg E. Clifton

In a very short and cursory piece of proposed federal legislation, Congressman Michael Baumgarter (R-Washington) has introduced the “Restore College Sports Act. While Baumgartner is still seeking a co-sponsor, the bill seeks to eliminate and replace the NCAA with a new entity, The American Collegiate Sports Association, which will be led by a Commissioner appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. The Congressman claims that in addition to replacing the NCAA, the proposed legislation has been introduced to eliminate the numerous inequities in college sports. Specifically, the Congressman has identified four specific areas that his proposed legislation is intended to address. 

The four specific areas are as follows:

1. To Establish A National Standards Commission:

The legislation would establish an independent commission, including specific student-athlete representation. The Commission would be empowered to create and set specific national standards for collegiate athletics. The bill proposes that student-athletes shall have the right to freely transfer without penalty or restriction.

2. To Implement Equitable NIL Revenue Standards:

The bill proposes the pooling of all national NIL revenues and then redistributing them nationally equally to ALL student-athletes. The goal is to ensure that all athletes - high-profiles stars, women’s sports athletes, freshmen and athletes in non-revenue sports, and team backups - all participate in NIL distributions.

3. To End Exploitative Conference Realignments:

The bill would require all athletic conferences to have members all operating with the same time zone, eliminating the need for cross-country travel for in- conference contests. Baumgarter asserts that this requirement would reduce travel burdens and prioritize the academic and physical well-being of the student-athletes.

4. Cap Excessive Coaching Salaries:

The legislation would set reasonable limits on coaching salaries, in reality creating a specific salary cap on potential earnings. Currently, the bill creates a “maximum annual salary” for each coach to be “capped” at ten times the full cost of attendance for students at each separate institution. Baumgarter claims the savings generated from limiting coaching salaries would be “reallocated to student-athlete educational resources, healthcare and support services.”

While members of the collegiate sports community have watched numerous partisan bills and a few bi-partisan pieces of legislation be introduced over the last few years and current NCAA President Charlie Baker’s efforts to seek federal legislation to assist with NIL and other relevant issue stonewalled in Congress, it is doubtful that Baumgarter’s efforts to completely strip down and remake the world of college sports will lead to a different result with this proposed bill. While Baumgarter claims the “NCAA is a defunct and broken institution that nobody likes,” and that his “bill reflected not only good policy, but good politics,” it is likely that his efforts will fall on deaf ears if the bill remains in its current form.

Simply stated, mandating that all conferences must limit members to schools within the same time zone and ignoring the creation of potential anti-trust issues with mandated caps on coaching salaries will likely lead to the failure of this bill and its goal of eliminating the NCAA.