OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
8:29 AM – Thursday, December 4, 2025
Leadership within the House of Representatives canceled a vote on a bill that would regulate compensation that college student-athletes earn for their name, image and likeness (NIL), despite the bipartisan bill’s support from Republicans.
Over 20 conservative organizations wrote a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) expressing support for the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements (SCORE) Act, according to Fox News.
However, the SCORE Act also faced bipartisan opposition in the House, but the key reason it didn’t pass — despite broad support from most conservatives and even backing from President Trump and the White House — is that a small but influential faction of hard-line conservatives, particularly from the House Freedom Caucus, withheld their votes.
In the thin Republican majority, even a handful of GOP “no” votes can sink legislation, especially when combined with near-unanimous Democrat opposition.
House Republican leadership, under Speaker Johnson, canceled the scheduled floor vote on the bill on Wednesday after it became clear there wasn’t sufficient support to pass it. This followed a contentious procedural rule vote on Tuesday that passed narrowly by 210-209, with several hard-line conservatives from the House Freedom Caucus — such as Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), and Scott Perry (R-Pa.) — initially voting against advancing the measure alongside Democrats, citing concerns over insufficient amendments, athlete protections, and perceived favoritism toward the NCAA and power conferences.
Opposition from both parties, including the Congressional Black Caucus, amplified doubts about Johnson’s ability to secure the necessary votes in the narrowly divided House. The vote may be rescheduled, nonetheless, potentially as soon as Thursday.
“The SCORE Act (college sports) is well-intended but falls short and is not ready for prime time. I will vote no. Putting aside the process problems (we should have been able to amend)… there are lots of legitimate concerns and questions,” Roy wrote, listing his concerns in a lengthy post.
“The SCORE Act was pulled from consideration because it simply didn’t have the votes, a clear sign that Members on both sides saw it for what it was: a gift to the NCAA and Power Two conferences at the expense of athletes,” Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) wrote on X.
“This bill would have imposed new restrictions on athletes while doing nothing to address the real instability in college athletics,” she added. “It ignored the coaching carousel, the erosion of women’s and Olympic sports, and the mounting financial deficits putting small and mid-sized programs and HBCUs at risk. Calling this a solution to the challenges facing college sports was always a stretch, and pulling it from the floor only confirms how unbalanced it was.”
The measure would give the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) a limited antitrust exemption to protect it from potential lawsuits over eligibility rules. It would also prohibit athletes from being employed by their schools and prohibit schools from using student fees to fund NIL payments.
“In 2021, the NCAA v. Alston case before the Supreme Court resulted in schools gaining freedom to offer additional education-related benefits to students, which set the stage for an expansion of NIL rights. In the years since, a patchwork of confusing state laws have been enacted, which cry out for a federal solution to create unified NIL rules that are consistent for everyone,” the letter read.
The groups in favor of the SCORE Act said that it is the “common-sense way” to establish rules.
“The Left’s proposed framework to regulate NIL would be a disaster. Known as the ‘SAFE Act,’ it would open the door for trial lawyers to frivolously sue athletic departments and conferences,” the conservative groups said. “It could also require student-athletes to be classified as employees, forcing many of them into unions, using merely the predicate of NIL compensation.”
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