Congressmen Neal Dunn, M.D. (R-FL-02), and Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL-26) led over 20 members of Congress in a letter to House leadership urging changes to the Protect College Sports Act (S. 4668) before final House passage.
The members support the effort to establish national standards for college athletics but raised concerns about Section 205, which would cap Power Four conference membership at 20 schools and require a school leaving one of those conferences to spend three years as an independent before joining another. They asked House leadership to remove or substantially amend the provision.
“College athletics need clear national standards, and there is much in this bill that I support,” said Congressman Dunn. “But Congress should not decide how many schools can belong to a conference or make a university spend three years as an independent before it can join another. Universities and conferences need the flexibility to make those decisions in the best interests of their student-athletes.”
In the letter to Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, the members wrote: “Conference membership should remain a matter for universities and conferences based on a range of factors including the needs of their student-athletes, geography, competition, media agreements, academic partnerships and relationships, and financial considerations.”
Joining Congressmen Dunn and Díaz-Balart in signing the letter were Representatives Sheri Biggs (R-SC-03), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL-12), Vern Buchanan (R-FL-16), Scott Franklin (R-FL-18), Carlos Gimenez (R-FL-28), Mike Haridopolos (R-FL-08), Mark Harris (R-NC-08), Laurel Lee (R-FL-15), Addison McDowell (R-NC-06), Cory Mills (R-FL-07), Tim Moore (R-NC-14), Gregory Murphy (R-NC-03), Ralph Norman (R-SC-05), Jimmy Patronis (R-FL-01), John Rutherford (R-FL-05), Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL-27), Greg Steube (R-FL-17), William Timmons (R-SC-04), and Joe Wilson (R-SC-02).
Read letter HERE.
