Sponsors
The bill creates a national, clearer framework that expands athletes' ability to earn from NIL (including international students) and increases transparency, but it shifts regulatory power away from states, raises administrative and privacy risks, and may deepen competitive imbalances and exploitation risks for some student‑athletes.
College athletes and prospective athletes nationwide can market their name, image, and likeness and enter enforceable NIL deals without institutional bans or conflicting state rules, increasing earning opportunities and legal certainty for athletes and sponsors.
International student‑athletes are explicitly covered and given clearer immigration support (a new F-1 subcategory and designated‑school-official endorsement counted as employment evidence), enabling qualified foreign athletes to study, compete, and monetize NIL in the U.S.
Students who earn NIL income retain scholarship/grant-in-aid eligibility and keep existing federal tax exclusions for qualified scholarship amounts, protecting access to college funding and maintaining tax clarity.
States lose ability to set differing NIL rules because the bill preempts conflicting state laws, reducing state-level protections and oversight that some states use to protect student-athletes from exploitative contracts or financial harms.
Allowing institutional or booster-funded NIL collectives and wider NIL commercialization risks worsening competitive imbalances—wealthier schools and boosters could concentrate NIL dollars and advantage already-successful programs.
New registration, licensing, FTC reporting, DHS oversight, and other compliance requirements for collectives, institutions, and schools create administrative costs, paperwork burdens, and potential legal exposure that may fall on institutions and taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Guarantees college athletes the right to earn from NIL, restricts institutional/association limits on NIL, creates FTC enforcement and reporting rules, funds NIL market research, and adds an F‑1 visa category for international athletes.
Introduced August 1, 2025 by Lori Trahan · Last progress August 1, 2025
Protects and expands college athletes’ right to earn money from their name, image, and likeness (NIL) by barring colleges and athletic associations from restricting or capping payments except via negotiated collective representation, requiring institutions that facilitate NIL collectives to register with the FTC and publish disaggregated reports, and forbidding retaliation against athletes who hire agents. It creates an FTC enforcement path and a private right of action, declares violations per se Sherman Act violations, funds market research on NIL compensation, and creates an F‑1 nonimmigrant category and work authorization for bona fide international college athletes so they may legally receive NIL compensation. Requires institutions and institutional NIL collectives to disclose uses and revenues, maintain non‑discrimination in facilitation, and preserves federal tax treatment of scholarships while preempting state laws that would limit athletes’ NIL contract rights.