Baumgartner Introduces Restore College Sports Act to Bring Sanity and Fairness to College Athletics

WASHINGTON- Congressman Michael Baumgartner (WA-05) introduced H.R. 2663, the Restore College Sports Act, bold legislation designed to rein in the chaos unleashed by House v. NCAA and restore competitive balance, fairness, and sustainability to college athletics. 

“College sports used to be about student athletes, school spirit, and fair competition. Now it’s turning into an unregulated free-agent market dominated by cash-rich super-conferences,” said Congressman Baumgartner. “The Restore College Sports Act puts students first, protects small and mid-sized programs, and ensures the magic of college sports isn’t lost to corporate greed.”

This year's NCAA men’s basketball tournament underscored the crisis: no upsets, no Cinderellas—just a predictable Final Four dominated by No. 1 seeds and big-brand powerhouses. Behind the scenes, top athletes are being lured away by massive name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals, leaving smaller programs with little hope to compete.

The Restore College Sports Act creates a national commission to establish clear rules for athlete compensation and program governance—with student-athletes at the table. It implements a national NIL revenue-sharing system that pools and redistributes funds equally to all student-athletes, regardless of fame, position, or sport. The bill also requires schools to play in regional conferences within the same time zone to cut down on excessive travel, and caps coaching salaries to halt the runaway spending arms race.

Baumgartner emphasized, “public universities, many of which are taxpayer-funded and heavily subsidized, need the same kind of fair competition rules that Congress has supported for professional sports leagues through antitrust exemptions and revenue-sharing models.”

“This is about saving Olympic sports, protecting academic integrity, and restoring sanity to an industry that’s completely lost control,” Baumgartner said. “Congress has a choice: step in and restore order—or let small schools fold, non-revenue sports vanish, and college sports become a monopoly for the few.”

With the future of college athletics at a breaking point, Baumgartner called on President Trump—who recently attended the NCAA Wrestling Championships and has long been a supporter of student-athletes—to support the bill and help rally the nation behind restoring balance and fairness in college sports.

Read the bill text here.

Read the one-pager here.

Watch his Floor speech here.