Manchin and Tuberville bipartisan introduce bill to shake up college sports

Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports on the NCAA pushing for Congress to standardize college athlete’s name, image or likeness endorsements.

Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., on Tuesday introduced legislation that would overhaul collegiate athletics and create a national standard for using an athlete's name, image and likeness (NIL). 

The bill comes two years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the NCAA had illegally restricted education-based benefits that could be used as compensation to student athletes. In response to that decision, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors in 2021 implemented an "interim" policy suspending its NIL compensation rules until the NCAA adopted new rules or Congress passed legislation. 

Now, Manchin, a former West Virginia University football player, and Tuberville, the former head football coach at Auburn University, have stepped in with the "Protecting Athletes, Schools and Sports Act," or PASS Act, to set rules for collectives and boosters, protect student athletes and maintain fair competition between schools and states. Their bill would require collectives and boosters to be affiliated with a college or school, prohibit inducements and ban certain NIL agreements, such as those that "involve alcohol, drugs, or conflict with existing school and conference licenses." 

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Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., (left) and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., have introduced legislation to create a national standard for using a collegiate athlete's name, image and likeness. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The PASS Act would grant the NCAA oversight and investigative authority