{"id":758,"date":"2026-05-20T06:03:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T06:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=758"},"modified":"2026-05-20T06:03:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T06:03:49","slug":"as-legislation-around-college-sports-falls-apart-in-congress-player-leaders-call-for-something-bigger-collective-bargaining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=758","title":{"rendered":"As legislation around college sports falls apart in Congress, player leaders call for something bigger: collective bargaining"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Massachusetts congresswoman Lori Trahan (D-Lowell), a former Division 1 volleyball player, has positioned herself as a fierce opponent of the proposed legislation around college sports.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Aroldis Chapman stands alone in 10th among baseball\u2019s all-time save leaders<\/a><\/p>\n

The SCORE Act, which stands for \u201cStudent Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements,\u201d has twice in the past year been on the House of Representatives\u2019 agenda before Republican leaders opted not to take it to a vote because it would likely not pass. On Monday night, Tuesday\u2019s vote was canceled after the Congressional Black Caucus came out against it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trahan\u2019s major issue with the SCORE Act is that she believes it will negatively impact women\u2019s programs and Olympic sports \u2014 pretty much anything outside of football and men\u2019s basketball. The legislation has been endorsed by the NCAA and major conferences as college sports leaders continue their years-long effort to get Congress to clear the way for the NCAA to establish antitrust protection.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The SCORE Act that was set to be voted upon reportedly had language that would create guardrails around name, image, and likeness compensation in the wake of the 2021 Supreme Court ruling that indicated the government would no longer allow the NCAA to consider its athletes as amateurs, as well as limits on how coaches could be hired and how buyouts would be funded. In addition, the SCORE Act would have created a sort-of salary cap for NIL, regulate compensation for player agents, and enact the proposed five-year eligibility rule that NCAA president Charlie Baker hopes to get approved soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

But during a Tuesday news conference, Trahan\u2019s biggest emphasis was that the SCORE Act would have prevented collective bargaining \u2014 something a number of female NCAA athletes are saying is a necessity. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe SCORE Act is being sold as a fix for college athletics,\u201d Trahan said. \u201cIt\u2019s not. It hands the NCAA and conferences a sweeping antitrust exemption in perpetuity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On Capitol Hill, Trahan said she has offered a proposal called the College Athletics Reform Act that she says would address problems around NIL, agent compensation, women\u2019s sports, and athlete health. And in the Senate, Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell are reportedly working on bipartisan legislation that may pick up steam now that the House has opted not to take a vote. <\/span><\/p>\n

Massachusetts native Oluchi Okananwa spent a season playing for Peabody High School before transferring to New Hampton Prep and later Worcester Academy. She began her college basketball career at Duke and transferred to Maryland after two seasons, helping to lead the Terrapins to the Sweet 16, averaging a team-high 17.8 points in the regular season.<\/span><\/p>\n

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And she\u2019s also one of the player leaders of the United College Athlete Association, a nonprofit founded in 2021 that is working to get female athletes a voice amid the debate around the future of college sports.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe NCAA has not been taking care of us,\u201d Okananwa said Tuesday. \u201cIn fact, they\u2019ve been doing the complete opposite \u2026 We need a legally binding position on a level playing field with the NCAA to negotiate our rights and working conditions. College sports are professional sports, and there is an obvious solution that works for every other major sports league in America, giving players a performer seat at the table. It\u2019s obvious that we are not just student-athletes, that myth has surely been debunked. We are professionals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew Cooper, a former college track athlete, is the founder of the UCAA and said he thinks collective bargaining would solve some of the problems the NCAA is facing that has prompted it to turn to Congress.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCollege sports needs to embrace a professional infrastructure with collective bargaining, just like every major professional sports league in America,\u201d he said. \u201cCollective bargaining provides universities with the stability they seek from antitrust laws, in the form of salary caps, transfer limits, tampering punishments.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Baker penned an op-ed for The Hill last week calling for Congress to pass the SCORE Act, writing that most students do not want to become employees of their schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStudent-athlete leaders from every division oppose this outcome because it would likely be catastrophic for their programs,\u201d he wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

But on Tuesday, Okananwa said that was not the case.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s honestly comical to have them say that we don\u2019t want to be seen as employees when we\u2019re kind of already operating as employee workers,\u201d she said. \u201cOur sport is at the center of everything that we do, especially with our time here at the university … I think it\u2019s time, and they know it\u2019s time, to come to the truth, which is that we are employees. We should be treated as such.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie charted his own way, until toppled by Trump<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Massachusetts native and current women’s basketball standout is speaking out in favor of player rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"yoast_head":"\nAs legislation around college sports falls apart in Congress, player leaders call for something bigger: collective bargaining - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=758\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As legislation around college sports falls apart in Congress, player leaders call for something bigger: collective bargaining - 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