State Attorneys General Warn Congress: Don’t Empower the NCAA Cartel

NASHVILLE— Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti today announced that he is leading a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general urging Congress to reject the federal SCORE Act, a bill that would expand the NCAA’s authority over college athletics while shielding it from legal accountability.

In a strongly worded letter to congressional leaders, the coalition emphasizes that the SCORE Act would reverse hard-earned progress by student-athletes and States in challenging the NCAA’s monopolistic practices. By granting the NCAA sweeping antitrust immunity, preempting State law, and federalizing NCAA hegemony over college sports, the bill would block future legal challenges, override State legislative reforms, and entrench the power of an organization the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled had violated antitrust laws.

“The NCAA has already had its day in court—and lost,” the letter states. “Yet now the NCAA asks Congress to rid it of the very mechanisms of accountability that ushered in progress and forced it, grudgingly, to reform: antitrust enforcement and State law.”

“Student-athletes have fought hard for a fair share of the billions they help generate,” said Attorney General Skrmetti. “Federal legislation to fix college sports will not succeed if it suffocates student-athletes under the weight of absolute control by an unaccountable NCAA.”

The attorneys general warn that the SCORE Act would eliminate critical oversight by preempting State laws, weakening protections States have won for athletes in court, and shielding the NCAA from future lawsuits. For example, the Act could block States from challenging vague and subjective NCAA rules, such as those governing “fair market value” in Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) compensation. The SCORE Act would also codify the NCAA’s unchecked rulemaking authority, giving federal approval to current and future policies without any mechanism for accountability.

Over the past decade, courts have repeatedly struck down NCAA restrictions on scholarships, education-related benefits, and NIL rights. As the Supreme Court made clear in its unanimous 2021 NCAA v. Alston decision: “The NCAA is not above the law.”

The letter concludes with a clear message to Congress: “The SCORE Act deals a get-out-of-jail-free card to an undeserving NCAA, and we urge you to reject it.”

Tennessee’s Attorney General is joined by the attorneys general of the District of Columbia, Florida, New York, and Ohio. To read the full letter, click here.

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