Sponsors (4)
The bill strengthens student-athlete protections—creating legal remedies, fee limits, and greater transparency—while imposing new compliance, litigation, and market pressures that could raise costs for taxpayers, institutions, and agent availability.
Current and former student athletes gain a clear private right to sue agents for violations, recover actual damages and attorneys' fees, and obtain injunctive or declaratory relief while pre-dispute arbitration/class-waiver clauses are unenforceable for covered disputes.
Student athletes pay lower agent commission caps (agents limited to 5% of endorsement value), reducing the share lost to intermediaries on endorsements.
Student athletes and families gain stronger safeguards against deceptive recruiting and improved transparency because athletic associations must publish searchable registries of certified agents and may rely on professional-league or Uniform Athlete Agent Act registrations.
Athlete agents face higher litigation exposure, liability, and potential fee awards, which may push some agents out of the market or raise agent fees, reducing available qualified representation for athletes.
Litigation against agents is likely to increase (including fee-shifting claims and requests for equitable relief), adding caseload pressure on state and federal courts and potentially delaying resolutions.
Taxpayers and financial institutions will face new tax reporting, compliance, and IT implementation costs to set up and maintain NIL investment accounts and comply with IRS rules.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Adds a new tax-code part for NIL investment accounts, sets agent registration/certification rules, caps endorsement agent fees at 5%, and creates a federal private right of action for most student-athletes.
Introduced December 4, 2025 by Marsha Blackburn · Last progress December 4, 2025
Creates a new federal tax code part for "NIL investment accounts" for student-athlete name/image/likeness (NIL) earnings and revises the federal Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act to regulate agents who negotiate endorsement deals for student-athletes. The bill requires written agency contracts, state registration/certification to represent student-athletes for endorsements, caps agent fees for endorsements at 5%, requires athletic associations to publish searchable agent registries, and gives most current and former student-athletes a private right to sue agents (including recovery of damages and attorney fees) while making pre-dispute arbitration and class-action waivers unenforceable for those disputes.