Congressman brands college sports bill the ‘Lane Kiffin Protection Act’ amid backlash

New LSU head coach Lane Kiffin speaks | Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images

College sports are creating a small circus in the United States Capitol this week. While federal legislation has been discussed to help govern some of the craziness in modern college athletics, progress definitely went backwards on that front this week, with one U.S. House Representative throwing out Lane Kiffin's name during his rant about the state of the SCORE Act.

The SCORE Act for those unfamiliar, is the name of the bill being kicked around that would set new regulations on the NIL and revenue-sharing world of college athletics. Critics might argue it gives back power to institutions — the schools, conferences and regulatory bodies like the NCAA while cutting off some of the current player freedoms. Supporters, and coaches, would argue it helps bring stability to a landscape that's constantly been called the Wild, Wild West.

The bill squeezed through a preliminary vote by a 210-209 margin to reach the House. But before it was put to the House, the vote was called off by House leadership following its slim margin of victory in the first tally. House representative Hakeem Jeffries, took umbrage with the SCORE Act hullabaloo this week at a press conference. He wondered why Speaker of the House Mike Johnson put the bill on the docket and even gave it a funny new nickname.

"Why would Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise agree to bring the Lane Kiffin Protection Act to the floor?" he asked, in reference to the SCORE Act. "Legislation that'd do nothing to benefit athletes and everything to benefit coaches like Lane Kiffin, who abandoned players in a playoff run for a $100M contract at LSU."

House Leader Mike Johnson (left) walks with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (right) | Jack Gruber / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Jeffries further pressed with his initial inquiry and some more questions about LSU sports. "Who exactly directed Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise to bring this bill to the floor this week? Was it the big donors connected to LSU?" he theorized. Jeffries added that, Louisiana connections aside, the bill has flaws anyway.

"Take away the antitrust exemption, it would prevent the ability of states to pass legislation that promotes the health and safety and well-being of their own college students and take away the legal right to redress."

Taking a wrench to this Tower of Babel style of state-by-state and conference-by-conference NIL/revenue-sharing regulations sounds like a good short-term fix, but Jeffries is not alone in pointing out the holes in the latest draft of vital long-term college sports legislation. Representatives from each side of the aisle took aim at the bill after it was announced it would not be put up for a vote.