I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2903 

To amend section 487(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide 

increased accountability of nonprofit athletic associations, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

AUGUST 1, 2013 

Mr. DENT (for himself, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. STIVERS, Mr. PERRY, Mr. GERLACH, Mr. SENSENBRENNER, Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania, Mr. 

MORAN, and Mr. MARINO) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce 

A BILL 

To amend section 487(a) of the Higher Education Act of 

1965 to provide increased accountability of nonprofit athletic associations, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘National Collegiate Athletics Accountability Act’’, or the 

6 ‘‘NCAA Act’’. 

7 (b) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds as follows: 


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1 (1) Nationwide, institutions of higher education 

2 receive approximately $150,000,000,000 to 

3 $200,000,000,000 in funding under title IV of the 

4 Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070 et 

5 seq.) annually, including approximately 

6 $20,000,000,000 to $30,000,000,000 in Federal Pell 

7 Grants; 

8 (2) In fiscal year 2014, institutions of higher 

9 education are projected to receive approximately 

10 $140,000,000,000 in Federal student aid under title 

11 IV of such Act, which accounts for 77 percent of all 

12 funding received by these institutions from the Fed13 eral Government. 

14 (3) Funding under title IV of such Act is used 

15 to provide grants, loans, and work-study funds from 

16 the Federal Government to eligible students enrolled 

17 in institution of higher education, including career 

18 schools. 

19 (4) Many institutions of higher education par20 ticipate in voluntary, nonprofit athletic associations 

21 and athletic conferences, with the largest such asso22 ciation having over 1,000 member institutions of 

23 higher education with more than 430,000 students 

24 participating in athletics, and providing approxiVerDate Mar 15 2010 22:06 Aug 05, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2903.IH H2903

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1 mately $523,000,000 in revenue sharing to such 

2 members. 

3 (5) Athletic programs at institutions of higher 

4 education are some of the largest revenue generators 

5 for such institutions nationwide, accounting for ap6 proximately $6,100,000,000 in revenue from ticket 

7 sales, radio and television receipts, alumni contribu8 tions, guarantees, royalties, and association distribu9 tions. 

10 (6) The Committee on a Sports Medicine of the 

11 American Academy of Pediatrics published a classi12 fication of sports based on the likelihood of contact, 

13 impact, or injury, and determined that— 

14 (A) boxing, field hockey, football, ice hock15 ey, lacrosse, martial arts, rodeo, soccer, and 

16 wrestling are contact/collision sports; and 

17 (B) baseball, basketball, bicycling, diving, 

18 high jump, pole vault, gymnastics, horseback 

19 riding, ice skating, roller skating, cross-country 

20 skiing, downhill skiing, water skiing, softball, 

21 squash, handball, and volleyball are limited-con22 tact/impact sports. 


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1 SEC. 2. PROGRAM PARTICIPATION AGREEMENTS. 

2 Section 487(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 

3 (20 U.S.C. 1094(a)) is amended by adding at the end the 

4 following: 

5 ‘‘(30) In the case of an institution that has an 

6 intercollegiate athletic program, the institution will 

7 not be a member of a nonprofit athletic association 

8 unless such association— 

9 ‘‘(A) requires annual baseline concussion 

10 testing of each student athlete on the active 

11 roster of each team participating in a contact/ 

12 collision sport or a limited-contact/impact sport 

13 (based on the most recent classification of 

14 sports published by the Committee on Sports 

15 Medicine of the American Academy of Pediat16 rics) before such student athlete may partici17 pate in any contact drills or activities; 

18 ‘‘(B) prior to enforcing any remedy for an 

19 alleged infraction or violation of the policies of 

20 such association— 

21 ‘‘(i) provides institutions and student 

22 athletes with the opportunity for a formal 

23 administrative hearing, not less than one 

24 appeal, and any other due process proce25 dure the Secretary determines by regula26 tion to be necessary; and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) hold in abeyance any such rem2 edy until all appeals have been exhausted 

3 or until the deadline to appeal has passed, 

4 whichever is sooner; 

5 ‘‘(C) with respect to institutions attended 

6 by students receiving athletically related stu7 dent aid (as defined in section 485(e)), requires 

8 any such athletically related student aid pro9 vided to student athletes who play a contact/col10 lision sport (based on the most recent classifica11 tion of sports published by the Committee on 

12 Sports Medicine of the American Academy of 

13 Pediatrics) to be— 

14 ‘‘(i) guaranteed for the duration of 

15 the student athlete’s attendance at the in16 stitution, up to 4 years; and 

17 ‘‘(ii) irrevocable for reasons related to 

18 athletic skill or injury of the student ath19 lete; and 

20 ‘‘(D) does not have in place a policy that 

21 prohibits institutions from paying stipends to 

22 student athletes.’’. 


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1 SEC. 3. APPLICATION OF TITLE IX OF THE EDUCATION 

2 AMENDMENTS OF 1972. 

3 Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 

4 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.) shall not apply with respect to any 

5 activity carried out by an institution of higher education 

6 (as defined in section 102 of the Higher Education Act 

7 of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002)) to comply with a nonprofit ath8 letic association membership requirement that is described 

9 in paragraph (30)(C) of section 487(a) of such Act of 

10 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1092(a)), as amended by section 2 of 

11 this Act. 

Æ 


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