Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., has broken with President Donald Trump on the Protect College Sports Act and spoken out about why he’s opposing it.
Scott voted against the bipartisan bill this week saying the legislation “wasn’t there yet.”
“Congress has crafted a bill that misses the mark by creating massive federal intervention and buying votes with nearly $200 MILLION in new spending for some schools,” Scott wrote on X. “This spending isn’t paid for and will only add to our $40 TRILLION debt. Are there issues in college athletics that deserve federal input? Absolutely. I believe Congress should ban men from competing in women’s sports and create some national standards to end the transfer portal chaos. While this bill makes progress on those issues, it fails to address problems I have heard directly from universities in my state, like disagreements on conference caps, so I couldn’t support it.”
Scott said the bill goes too far to insert the federal government into college sports.
“We don’t need federal law that forces schools to lose revenue if they want to change their conference or dictates when schools can change their coaches and where their salaries can come from,” Scott said.
The bill would make sweeping changes to the collegiate sport system including establishing requirements for name, image, or likeness agreements for college student athletes, requiring agents to register with a state, capping agent endorsement contract fees at 5%, allowing student athletes one transfer without losing athletic eligibility, restricting football personnel from becoming the head football coach at a different school in the same season, and other changes.
President Trump has been vocal about his support for the bill and indicated he would sign it into law.
“College Sports are turning into Pro Sports, except with absolutely no rules, a result no one wants. University Presidents, Conference Commissioners, Student-Athletes, Coaches, and Athletic Directors all complained to me that it has become a disaster, after years of no action, and that Schools were losing Hundreds of Millions of Dollars a year,” Trump wrote earlier this year on Truth Social.
The Trump Administration officially endorsed the act in a statement saying it advances key priorities in two of Trump’s executive orders related to protecting college sports.
“The future of college sports, especially the future of Olympic and non-revenue sports, is threatened by significant legal and financial uncertainty,” the statement read. “Federal legislative action is imperative to fix the statutory ambiguities, ensure liability protection and uniform standards, and stop the endless litigation that is fueling this crisis, which will in turn provide the stability, fairness, and balance necessary to protect student-athletes and preserve collegiate athletic opportunities.”
