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Congress must secure the future of college sports

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by Charlie Baker, opinion contributor - 05/07/26 9:30 AM ET

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by Charlie Baker, opinion contributor - 05/07/26 9:30 AM ET

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Michigan guard Trey McKenney (1) and forward Yaxel Lendeborg celebrate after defeating UConn in the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

There is a tremendous amount of change reshaping college sports — and much of it for good reason. For too long, college sports were too slow to modernize. But in recent years, we have worked to transform our system with tremendous speed.

Schools are now directing approximately $1 billion a year in new financial benefits to student-athletes. Division I schools must now provide student-athletes with healthcare, enhanced resources in areas like mental health, and guaranteed scholarships. And on top of all of this, we are focused on continuing to increase the current record-breaking levels of student-athlete participation, scholarship support, and fan interest.

But as college sports continue to transform from the inside, other changes risk undermining opportunities for the more than 554,000 student-athletes who together receive more than $4 billion in scholarships annually. The most acute risks facing college sports broadly can be grouped into two categories: the destruction of common-sense eligibility limits, and the threat that student-athletes are broadly forced to become university employees.

At its core, college sports represent a way for talented high school athletes to reach a new level of athletic competition, while also pursuing a degree. For decades the NCAA’s eligibility rules helped ensure college sports fulfill that basic promise by guaranteeing that rosters consist of student-athletes making sufficient academic progress, and by limiting student-athletes’ eligibility to compete to four seasons over five years or less.

While these basic rules are overwhelmingly popular, a series of lawsuits (more than 60 in the last year and a half alone), filed by a tiny share of those competing in college sports to challenge these basic concepts, has caused systemic disarray. Even our transfer policy has been invalidated, thanks to a lawsuit filed by a few attorneys general, leaving student-athletes with the chaos now associated with the transfer portal.

As inconsistent legal decisions stack up, college sports also risk becoming a “second career” for former professionals. This professionalization will come at the direct expense of incoming freshmen, robbing the next generation of their chance at a scholarship and a seat on the bench.

At the same time, an equally small number of individuals want to force college athletes to become full-time employees of their schools. Although this may sound appealing on the surface, student-athlete leaders from every division oppose this outcome because it would likely be catastrophic for their programs.

Less than 1 percent of college sports programs nationwide generate meaningful revenue, so the additional cost of an employment mandate would create enormous financial pressure, likely resulting in widespread program cuts — with women’s sports, Olympic sports, historically Black college and university programs, and Division II and III bearing the brunt. Beyond that, coaches would become bosses, and scholarships could be taxed. I speak with student-athletes daily, and this is not an outcome they desire.

Many question why the federal government should intervene in college sports at all. I understand those concerns. But it is important to recognize that the NCAA is not standing still, merely waiting for intervention. We have moved with unprecedented speed to cut administrative bureaucracy by 30 percent and double the voting power of student-athletes in our governance system. We have seen changes that used to take years happen in a matter of weeks.

But no internal reform — no matter how fast it moves — can on its own provide the permanent legal foundation required to stabilize the student-athlete experience. The urgency of this moment cannot be overstated; we are currently facing a fragmented patchwork of state laws and a litigation-driven environment that threatens to dismantle our progress by making playing fields less fair and erasing opportunities.

This is why the SCORE Act is so vital. It is the only bipartisan bill that would address the most pressing legal challenges in a narrow manner, while also securing essential student-athlete protections into federal law.

This includes codifying student-athletes’ right to capitalize on their name, image, and likeness and mandating the health and wellness benefits they deserve, while finally establi