{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://baumgartner.house.gov/media/press-releases/baumgartner-bill-puts-coaches-budget-salary-cap-tied-tuition-restoring-sanity", "Baumgartner Bill Puts Coaches on a Budget \u2013 Salary Cap Tied to Tuition, Restoring Sanity to College Athletics", "2025-10-27", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "House", "WA", "Michael Baumgartner", "B001322", "baumgartner.house.gov", "baumgartner", "https://baumgartner.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON- Congressman Michael Baumgartner (WA-05) introduced H.R. 5812, the COACH Act\u2014a targeted solution to soaring coaching compensation and buyouts across college athletics.\n\n\u201cSchools that publish contract data for their head coaches have amassed $1.7 billion in potential buyout liabilities,\u201d said Congressman Baumgartner. \u201cThis season alone, colleges are on pace to pay over $169 million for coaches not to coach. This amount equals a full year of operating revenue at a top-tier Division I program\u2014enough to rank as a top-13 athletics department by revenue. My bill puts an end to that. College sports are highly subsidized public goods, not a professional enterprise.\u201d\n\n\u201cEven in professional sports, cost controls exist: salary caps operate within narrow antitrust frameworks recognized by Congress and the courts.\u201d Baumgartner continued, \u201cThe COACH Act is a simple guardrail to bring sanity back to the financial management of college sports\u2014it creates a narrow, lawful path for schools to set reasonable limits on coaches' pay. It\u2019s time for Congress to step in to restore sanity to college sports.\u201d\n\nWhat the bill does:\n\nWisdom of a Bygone Era: In the 1990s, the NCAA tried cost-saving, competitive-balance limits on coaching pay, but courts struck them down\u2014see Law v. NCAA (10th Cir. 1998), which permanently enjoined the \u2018restricted-earnings coach\u2019 cap. Since then, the arms race has only accelerated, and in roughly 40 states the highest-paid public employee is a college coach.\n\nThe Mechanics: Amends Title IV of the Higher Education Act and provides a limited, targeted antitrust exemption so schools can collectively set a reasonable compensation ceiling for athletics department employees.\n\nThe Cap: As a condition of participating in federal student-aid programs, institutions agree to limit total compensation of any athletics department employee to 10\u00d7 the institution\u2019s tuition and required fees for a first-time, full-time undergraduate for the most recent year (as reported under \u00a7487(g) of the HEA).\n\nNo loopholes: \u201cTotal compensation\u201d is defined broadly to include salary, bonuses, deferred compensation, severance/buyouts, in-kind support, housing/mortgage or debt relief, personal-services contracts, and other remuneration\u2014from the university or any affiliated or controlled booster organization.\n\nWhy it matters: A single season\u2019s buyout can mirror a full year of operating revenue at many programs and rival top-tier budgets. Instead of paying coaches not to coach, resources should be used to control costs, limit financial liabilities of federally subsidized programs, and preserve scholarships and Olympic sports.\n\nBy the Numbers: $1.7B in potential head-coach buyouts at schools that publish contract data \u2013 per USA Today tracking. This season\u2019s \u201cpay-not-to-coach\u201d total \u2248 Top-13 athletics department by revenue.", 1, "2026-04-04T05:28:40Z", "2026-04-04T05:30:10Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://baumgartner.house.gov/media/press-releases/baumgartner-bill-puts-coaches-budget-salary-cap-tied-tuition-restoring-sanity"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8922326378524303, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}