The SCORE Act collapses on Capitol Hill as NIL chaos, political infighting, and Lane Kiffin’s blockbuster LSU deal had Rep. Hakeem Jeffries all sorts of befuddled.

PublishedDecember 5, 2025 8:08 AM EST•UpdatedDecember 5, 2025 8:09 AM EST

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Email
• Copy Link

What was once thought to be an easy path to the Senate floor, the SCORE Act, which has been long debated over the past two years, fell apart this week before it could be voted on in the House. And, Lane Kiffin’s new contract with LSU was a main point of contention between congressional leaders, thanks to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Can you imagine college athletics getting any crazier than what we witnessed this week between Kiffin, Ole Miss and LSU? 

Oh, think again. 

House Settlement Aftermath: Lawmakers Present Two Different NIL Bills That Aim To Regulate College Athletics

I’ve said from the start that the country has better things to worry about right now than having to argue over protecting organizations like the NCAA or even the new College Sports Commission from lawsuits that would come from trying to limit what athletes could make in the future. 

Don’t forget, with the House settlement passing, this opened a whole new can of worms. Schools can now directly pay athletes for their services, with a salary cap set at over $20.5 million per year to be divided up between different sports on college campuses. 

This hit a boiling point on Wednesday, with new LSU head coach Lane Kiffin being a point of emphasis. No, we’re not kidding. 

The ‘Lane Kiffin Protection Act’ Is One Way To Describe It

There was always going to be infighting in regard to the timing and the optics of this entire ordeal. I just didn’t expect a college football move would be a major talking point, though Lane Kiffin does draw headlines. 

At the same time as congressional leaders were trying to garner the votes that would protect the NCAA, Lane Kiffin signed a deal that would pay him over $90 million to coach the LSU Tigers. 

Ole Miss AD Keith Carter Debunks Lane Kiffin’s Timeline: Players Begging Him To Stay Was ‘Overstatement’

Speaker Mike Johnson from Louisiana and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La) took the brunt of criticism from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Thursday during a press conference to discuss ongoing issues that should take priority over a bill that would protect the NCAA, along with others. 

“Why would Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise think it was a good idea to bring the Lane Kiffin Protection Act to the floor of the House of Representatives? Legislation that would do nothing to benefit college athletes and everything to benefit coaches like Lane Kiffin, who got out of town, abandoned his players in the middle of a playoff run to go get a $100 million contract from LSU, the home state of Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise. 

“People are asking the question, why did you decide to bring this bill this week with all the other issues that the country is demanding that we focus on. “

People in Johnson’s office told OutKick that they are aware of the statements made, but have no comment on the matter.
 

According to multiple people connected to the situation in Washington, the Lane Kiffin saga has not helped this week when it comes to public perception. 

A number of representatives have received push back, with the new LSU football coach being used as a prop as to why the college athletics business is hard to take seriously when a head coach is bailing on their team during such a pivotal time. 

Also, add the comments from Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry last month pertaining to LSU having to pay the massive $54 million buyout for former head coach Brian Kelly, and congressional leaders are not going to get much sympathy from those looking to prevent an organization like the NCAA from having to answer for certain aspects of potential antitrust cases down the road. 

During his SEC Championship press conference on Thursday, commissioner Greg Sankey even commented on the ongoing SCORE ACT debate, mentioning he was in Washington on Wednesday. 

“There was an opportunity to vote yesterday in the House. It did not happen,” Sankey noted. “We’ll continue in our educational efforts. We’re going to take the time needed to try to address the questions that are being asked by members of Congress. Again, this is on both sides of the aisle. 

“The fact that there’s so much interest, I think, is an indication of the serious nature of college sports, the importance to our nation, our culture.”

Yes, this is where we are at right now in college athletics, along with the politics that come with it. 

Penn State has landed on Iowa State’s Matt Campbell as its next head coach, ending a wild 54-day search after firing James Franklin.

In addressing the media following the choice to part with Franklin, athletic director Pat Kraft clearly laid out his idea for the next head coach in Happy Valley.

“We want someone who will attract elite talent, retain players in the NIL era and make Penn State a destination,” Kraft said on Oct. 13. “This is also about the modern era of college football. Our next coach needs to be able to maximize elite-level resources, attack the transfer portal and develop at the highest level.”

Now, we reportedly have some details on what those “elite-level resources” actually are.

Kraft and Penn State are committing about $30 million in NIL money for the football roster and $17 million for Campbell’s coaching staff, according to a report from Matt Fortuna.

That’s on top of an eight-year contract for Campbell that will place him among the top-10 coaching salaries in the country, according to ESPN and Yahoo Sports.

Under Franklin, Penn State had well-compensated rosters, but the model was not what Kraft envisioned.

Franklin preferred not to set the market on high school recruits and did not embrace the transfer portal fully, instead choosing to fill holes here and there.

Campbell will be tasked with flipping that script.

“We have invested at the highest level. With that comes high expectations,” Kraft added in October. “Ultimately, I believe a new leader can help us win a national championship.”

Listen to the Blue-White Breakdown podcast

TCU’s just-passed 8-4 regular season had many in the purple people masses as angry as a tourist who just paid $40 to park, and for many others as disappointed as when Junior brought home an F in civics.

Many have expressed themselves in much the same way of our old friend, the frontier prospector Gabby Johnson of “Blazing Saddles” fame: No sidewindin’, bushwackin’, hornswagglin’ cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter!

TCU Athletic Director Mike Buddie gets it.

“I think there were 11 teams in our league this year whose fan bases wanted their coaches fired,” Buddie said on Friday morning at the FIFA World Cup Draw party at Billy Bob’s Texas, the world’s largest honky tonk. “That’s the culture that we live in. You can win [against a] ranked opponent, [next week against] ranked opponent, [a third straight win against a] ranked opponent, and then lose — they want you gone.

“It’s a new day and age.”

Like the mood of Paris in 1793 — cheers in the morning, pitchforks and the guillotine by dusk.

TCU finished in the middle of a congested Big 12 at 5-4. To put some perspective on its season, Texas finished 9-3. Of course, many UT fans think the Longhorns should win every game, too. No. 25 Missouri, like TCU, finished 8-4. So, too, did Tennessee and Iowa, two teams receiving votes in the AP poll. In the end, after 12 regular-season games, only two teams finished undefeated — Ohio State and Indiana. One of those teams will lose this weekend; they play each other.

North Carolina — guided by renowned football genius Bill Belichick — stumbled to 4–8, taking a season-opening black eye from TCU.

Just last year, Ohio State fans wanted coach Ryan Day on the nearest interstate out of town after the Buckeyes took the worst kind of a second loss of the season — to Michigan. That was on Nov. 30. By the end of January, they wanted to elect him governor after winning the national championship. 

The Horned Frogs will learn their postseason bowl destination on Sunday.

Dykes has gone 35-17 over four seasons at TCU, including 13-2 and a berth in the College Football Playoff championship game in his first season. That campaign included a victory over No. 2 Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl CFP semifinals.

TCU slipped to 5-7 in 2023 but went 9-4 last year and could do the same in 2025 with one last victory.

“We need to be better,” Buddie said. “We’re committed to getting better. I’m excited because nobody realizes that more than Sonny Dykes.

“He’s committed to addressing some needs that I think we have and more than ever before, what I do and how we strategically fundraise and approach people financially has a direct impact on your football program. I think Texas Tech showed us all that if you can build the most talented roster and develop them, really good things happen.”

Texas Tech, which is playing in the Big 12 Championship Game on Saturday against BYU, spent, according to reports and speculation, as much as $28 million on its football roster this season. The Red Raiders are No. 4 in the most recent CFP rankings.

Spending that kind of money is the result of a completely transformed landscape in college football. Colleges can now spend as much as $20.5 million on payroll for athletes in its various programs. That mostly impacts football and men’s basketball — those sports that generate the most revenue, the “revenue sports.”

Before that, each Division I school had an adjacent collective designed to allow athletes to cash in on their name, image, and likeness. That quickly evolved — devolved? — into merely paying athletes by writing checks out of the collective’s pool. Now completely legal after a U.S. Supreme Court case permitting athletes to receive compensation beyond traditional scholarships. The collectives simply became the mechanism to funnel those payments.

Most, if not all, of the collectives have now been merged with universities’ traditional athletics fundraising arm. NIL endorsement deals are now supposed to be just exactly that — an athlete endorsing a product, for example. I’m not exactly sure how all that sorts out.

“The landscape has changed, but we still have a ton of advantages in facilities and where we’re located and historical success,” said Buddie, who added that TCU also is “thoughtful and strategic in how we employ people.”

“We’re not in the business of paying $50 million buyouts for people to go away. And when you believe you’ve got the right person who’s already proven that he can win in the College Football Playoff, it’s incumbent on me to provide him every resource that he needs to be successful.”

Article is about Phillip Bells High School experience and being shopped to different schools and 7 x 7 teams. Really sad situation.

A few quotes:

“Bell’s mother, who abused drugs, shopped him from school to school, demanding up to $72,000 a year, according to court filings, public records and interviews with relatives and others who knew the family. He also joined a club team that paid thousands of dollars a weekend.’

On his visit to OSU: “The hotel room where Bell’s mother and stepfather were staying was “trashed,” leaving an OSU coach with a bill for broken furniture, his high-school coach later told relatives. A Buckeyes coach subsequently informed Bell’s mother that the team wanted her son, but the “entourage” wasn’t welcome in Columbus, the high-school coach said.

OSU declined to comment.

Before they left Ohio, Barnes’ blood sugar spiked to life-threatening levels, she suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized for several days, according to public records.”

Hoping that with support from OSU that he can break the cycle and achieve great things!

This link is behind a paywall: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/football-high-school-nil-phillip-bell-81270bdf?mod=hp_lead_pos7

Definitely worth a read – there is definitely a downside to the money flowing to these athletes. Kinda makes me wonder about the Legend Bey situation.