US Congress and NIL

[SubGod22]

ESPN - Senators offer latest bill aimed at college sports, NIL reform

A bipartisan trio of U.S. senators shared a draft Thursday morning of legislation that aims to create a uniform national law for how college athletes can make money and push many schools to provide more health care benefits for athletes.

The draft is one of at least three potential bills that have been floated on Capitol Hill this summer as the NCAA and leaders across college sports continue to ask Congress to help regulate how athletes can make money from their names, images and likenesses. This proposal -- co-authored by Sens. Cory Booker, Jerry Moran and Richard Blumenthal -- goes beyond NIL regulation by suggesting that NCAA schools should be required to be more transparent about their finances and set aside funds for post-career medical expenses and long-term guaranteed scholarships for athletes.

"It would make college athletics fairer, safer, and more just, and empower more young people to succeed in sports and beyond," Booker said in a statement.

Federal lawmakers have proposed more than a dozen bills to reform college sports in the past three years, but thus far none has made it beyond the first step in the legislative process. Leaders from the NCAA, its most powerful conferences and many of its schools have traveled to Washington this summer to try to convince Congress to act. They say that the current lack of a nationwide standard has created a "race to the bottom" among state legislatures that are passing laws designed to try to give teams in their state a competitive advantage in recruiting.

"Congressional action is the only way to provide a national uniform standard for name, image, and likeness activity and to draw the lines around the boundaries that do not become simply pay for play," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said earlier this week.

[SubGod22]

The NCAA is crafting some rules on NIL.

ESPN - Review of NCAA's business pushes association to get creative in supporting schools, athletes

The NCAA on Wednesday announced that it was crafting detailed rules for name, image and likeness compensation and that all college athletes soon would be eligible for injury insurance after they leave school.

The NCAA Division I board of directors directed the Division I Council to deliver a proposal in October to regulate the way college athletes can make money off their fame. The NCAA lifted its ban on NIL compensation in 2021 and has been operating with an interim policy that broadly bans pay-for-play and recruiting inducements.

Myriad state laws, meanwhile, have been setting the rules for NIL, and college sports leaders have been lobbying federal lawmakers for help. NCAA President Charlie Baker said in June the organization needed to work on its own solution as a Plan B.

We'll see what happens with this or Congress. But it's a step towards something.

[WstateU]

"Utah’s Crimson Collective announced on Wednesday that every player on scholarship will receive a new 2024 Dodge Ram truck. That means that a total of 85 trucks will be given to Utes players as part of this deal."

"“This is gonna give us a leg up on recruiting and that’s what it’s all about," said Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham about the record-setting deal."

Pac-12 Team Reportedly Hands Out Richest NIL Deal In History (msn.com)

[SubGod22]

ESPN - NCAA to discuss NIL changes allowing more school involvement

College sports leaders are considering making changes to current NCAA guidelines that would allow schools to get significantly more involved in helping athletes make money from endorsement deals.

An NCAA subcommittee in charge of examining the rules that dictate how athletes use their name, image and likeness rights to make money will meet Thursday to discuss several proposed changes, according to meeting notes obtained by ESPN. The notes show potential changes that would give schools the clearance to find deals for athletes, review contracts, help them with preparing taxes, and provide resources such as cameras or graphic designers for athletes to complete their end of a marketing deal.

The proposed changes have not been finalized, and it's not clear if or when any new guidance would be adopted, but the changes would potentially eliminate some of the uncertainty about how much athletic departments can help athletes seen in the first two-plus years of college sports' NIL era.

Allowing staff members to more directly impact how money flows to players could also represent a major step toward reshaping the nature of the relationship between schools and their athletes.

Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts, who is a member of the committee meeting later this week, said he's in favor of making "aggressive" changes that would help schools support their athletes and regain some control in the NIL marketplace. Alberts said he thinks NCAA members need to be open to change that addresses their current reality without being naive.

[SubGod22]

ESPN - NCAA president Charlie Baker set to testify before Congress

NCAA president Charlie Baker and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti are scheduled to testify at a Senate hearing about the future of college sports next week.

Baker and many other college sports administrators have asked Congress to write a new federal law that would allow the NCAA to regulate how athletes make money and protect the association from what has been a steady and successful onslaught of legal challenges to its business model.

Next week's hearing hosted by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Oct. 17 will mark the 10th time college sports leaders have been called to Capitol Hill since 2020.

The judiciary committee expects to add at least two or three additional witnesses to next week's hearing, according to a legislative aide. Walker Ross, a former Under Armour executive who now runs a booster collective associated with Ole Miss, is also expected to be a witness, according to a report from Yahoo! Sports.

A legislative aide told ESPN no other witnesses beyond Baker and Petitti have been confirmed as of Tuesday afternoon.

The NCAA and its members have asked Congress to create uniform rules for how athletes can sell their name, image and likeness (NIL) rights. They have also asked for a new law codifying that college athletes are not employees of their schools and one that would give the schools some protection from antitrust lawsuits. Both those requests have the potential to stymie current legal battles in federal court and in front of the National Labor Relations Board.

[SubGod22]

NCAA about to say **** it?

ESPN - NCAA proposes rule to let schools, athletes enter NIL deals

NCAA president Charlie Baker proposed rule changes Tuesday that would allow Division I schools for the first time to pay their athletes in ways that are not tied to educational resources.

Baker shared the proposed changes in a letter sent to member schools. If Division I schools choose to adopt the rules, they would be allowed to enter into name, image and likeness deals directly with their athletes. The new rules would also create a trust fund for athletes at the richest tier of athletic departments and allow those schools to create its own set of rules for recruiting, transfers, roster size and a wide range of other policies.

"[It] is time for us -- the NCAA -- to offer our own forward-looking framework," Baker said. "This framework must sustain the best elements of the student-athlete experience for all student-athletes, build on the financial and organizational investments that have positively changed the trajectory of women's sports, and enhance the athletic and academic experience for student-athletes who attend the highest resourced colleges and universities."

The policy would bring a major change to the foundational tenet of NCAA's long-held business model that prevented schools from providing any non-academic-based compensation to athletes. Baker's letter said the change is necessary during a time when the revenue generated by top colleges is poised to grow significantly, and the legal pressure to compensate athletes continues to mount.

[Stickboy46]

Yup, here is the break off. This is basically be kissing the NCAA tournament goodbye

[SubGod22]

Yup, here is the break off. This is basically be kissing the NCAA tournament goodbye

Which will diminish the price of whatever comes after. March Madness is what it is because of the non-power schools.

[SubGod22]

Not Congress, but the courts...

ESPN - Judge keeps NCAA's restrictions on NIL in place for now

A judge on Tuesday kept in place for now the NCAA's rules prohibiting name, image and likeness compensation from being used as a recruiting inducement, denying a request for a temporary restraining order by the states of Tennessee and Virginia.

The attorneys general of those states filed a federal antitrust lawsuit in the Eastern District of Tennessee last week that challenged the NCAA's NIL rules, after it was revealed the University of Tennessee was under investigation by the association for potential infractions.

The states asked for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, saying immediate action was needed to keep the NCAA from standing in the way of recruits monetizing their fame.

I'm sure this will be ruled in favor of the schools eventually. We all know this is essentially already happening but it is technically against the NIL rules for now.