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Two members of Congress today introduced the NCAA Accountability Act, federal legislation that seeks to make the NCAA more transparent and provide protections to players and universities.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pennsylvania), a critic of the NCAA's punishment of Penn State in the Jerry Sandusky scandal, and Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio). The legislation calls for universities to be prohibited from receiving federal Title IV funds if they participate in athletic associations, such as the NCAA, that don't implement Congress' proposed new rules as part of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

The provisions in the six-page bill introduced to Congress:

* Requires annual baseline concussion tests for college athletes. The NCAA currently recommends colleges perform baseline tests and about two-thirds of the schools do so, according to a 2010 NCAA survey.

* Requires four-year scholarship for athletes participating in contact/collision sports that are irrevocable based on athletic skill or injury. Contact/collision sports are defined as boxing, field hockey, football, ice hockey, lacrosse, martial arts, rodeo, soccer and wrestling.

* Prevents an in institution from implementing a policy that prohibits institutions from paying stipends to college athletes.

* Ensures athletes and universities must have the opportunity for a formal administrative hearing prior to any NCAA punishment for an alleged violation, and at least one appeal and "any other due process procedure the Secretary determines by regulation to be necessary."

At a news conference, Dent told reporters the NCAA has a "disturbing amount of inconsistency" with its enforcement process that grows with each investigation.

"Profit and big business has trumped health, safety, and educational achievement," Dent said. "The time has come for the NCAA to get back to its original purpose."

Earlier this year, Dent called on the NCAA to reinstate 40 football scholarships at Penn State over the life of the sanctions, saying athletes had nothing to do with the Sandusky scandal. Beatty, a co-sponsor of the bill, was an Ohio State vice president when quarterback Terrelle Pryor and several teammates were sanctioned by the NCAA for selling memorabilia.

The bill notes that universities are projected to receive $140 billion during fiscal year 2014 in federal student aid under Title IV. Those funds provide grants, loans and work-study funds to eligible students enrolled in institutions.

It's not clear how much support Dent and Beatty have from other members of Congress.

"These are our kids. It's time to stop ignoring the flaws in the system," Dent said. "We owe it to them to take the proper corrective action and we hope our colleagues will join us in this effort."

NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said the association and its schools attempt to prepare more than 450,000 college athletes to succeed at life by offering academic and athletic opportunities.

"Our member-created rules and processes are in place to provide a fair competition environment and protect the safety and wellbeing of student-athletes, a responsibility we take very seriously," Osburn wrote in a statement.

Will Congress get involved even more?

The legislation comes as the NCAA faces significant challenges. The association is being sued over concussions and the use of athletes' names, images and likenesses; hears complaints from powerful conference commissioners as the divide between the haves and have-nots grows; and has admitted mistakes in NCAA enforcement.

Sonny Vaccaro, the former shoe marketer who helped line up some plaintiffs in the Ed O'Bannon lawsuit against the NCAA, met with Dent several months ago.

Vaccaro said he was in Washington D.C. for other purposes and visited with Dent and some senators to discuss the O'Bannon case, in which athletes are seeking a share of college athletics' licensing revenue. Vaccaro said he senses there is Congressional interest beyond today's bill.

"They sort of laid the groundwork for other things happening," Vaccaro said. "I think there's a second part to this. It was almost as important to get the deal going as it was to get bipartisan support, which shows a movement that there are people in Washington listening on subjects concerning the NCAA."

Not mentioned directly in the bill are more controversial topics such as antitrust, pay-for-play and tax-exemption. Michael McCann, director of the Sports Entertainment Law Institute at the University of New Hampshire, said the bill could plant seeds with members of Congress to ask why athletics departments are exempt from tax law.

McCann cautioned that legislative proposals related to sports often do not actually become law. But this proposal could encourage the NCAA to accelerate change, he said.

"We saw that in baseball when Senator (John) McCain threatened legislation that would have taken drug testing out of the hands of baseball," McCann said. "Hearings themselves will be threatening to the NCAA because in a hearing, the NCAA isn't in control of the message."

Law professor: Bill is far too simplified

If Congress' purpose for this bill is to ultimately examine the NCAA's tax-exempt status, "they should go at it directly," said Jo Potuto, a profess of law at Nebraska and former NCAA infractions committee chair. "Let's have that discussion as to why there's tax-exempt status and what it means. I wouldn't be opposed to that discussion happening at a high level."

Instead, Potuto said the bill attempts to tackle nuanced issues with simplified statements. "It would be like trying to do the health code by simply saying we're going to treat people who are sick and not say how it's going to be done," she said.

For instance, more than 1,500 athletes have their eligibility reinstated each year, often due to a minor NCAA violation, she said.

"Surely we don't want there to be formal administrative hearings to resolve them," Potuto said. "We're really talking about the major things. To say you're going to have formal hearings without giving the NCAA all the procedural mechanisms to get people to cooperate -- talk about tilting the playing field in one direction."

The bill's one sentence about stipends "looks like a back-end way of saying the NCAA has to pay players," Potuto said. "Because as I read it, it says an institution shouldn't belong to any association prohibiting it. That seems to be a much larger subject than Congress saying that in one sentence."

Gene Marsh, a retired Alabama law professor who once chaired the NCAA infractions committee, said he no longer has a knee-jerk reaction that Congress shouldn't be involved in college sports.

"There's enough upset in the air over the NCAA enforcement process that's been building for many years, and even by the NCAA's admission, needs significant change," said Marsh, who cautioned he has not read the bill yet. "If Congress has something to say and has decent points to be made, I don't see any harm in it, even if it doesn't end in Congressional action."

Back in February, the NCAA removed its top enforcement officer over problems with its investigation into Miami. The NCAA said investigators impermissibly obtained information from a bankruptcy hearing unrelated to the NCAA case.

The NCAA's new Division I infractions model takes effect today. Instead of a two-level penalty structure, there are now four levels, which the NCAA says will allow for more flexibility of defining the severity of the cases.

More accountability is being placed on head coaches, who could be suspended for violations that occur under their watch. Also, the infractions committee membership size has increased from 10 to 18 in order to hold more hearings, and former coaches such as Lloyd Carr and Bobby Cremins are now committee members.

Conference in the enforcement process is "at an all-time low," Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott told reporters last week. "The fairness, speed, consistency and thoroughness of NCAA investigations must be reviewed as well as the impact these investigations and decisions have on our universities as a whole."

Updated to include comments from the NCAA, Sonny Vaccaro, Michael McCann and Jo Potuto.