Sponsors (2)
Last progress June 9, 2025 (8 months ago)
Introduced on June 9, 2025 by Lisa C. McClain
Creates a federal framework that lets college athletes negotiate and receive compensation for use of their name, image, and likeness (NIL), requires registration and disclosures for agents and representatives, and compels schools and athletic associations to collect and publish anonymized NIL deal data. It conditions federal higher-education funding on institutional compliance with education, medical, and data-reporting requirements and preempts state or local laws that would conflict with this nationwide standard. The law also gives conferences and interstate athletic associations authority to adopt reasonable rules on recruiting and transfers, establishes legal safe harbors for institutions and associations acting under the law, and forbids treating student-athletes as employees solely because they play varsity sports.
Compensation means any form of payment or reward (cash, benefits, awards, etc.), including payments for licenses to use name, image, and likeness rights or other federal or state intellectual property rights. Compensation does not include grants-in-aid; Federal Pell Grants and other Federal or State grants unrelated to participation in athletics; health insurance and payments for health care; disability and loss-of-value insurance; career counseling, job placement, and guidance available to all students; payment of hourly wages for actual work at market rates (not for athletic participation); or programs that connect student athletes with employers if the pay and terms match those offered to similarly situated non–student-athletes and the program is not used to recruit a student athlete to a particular institution.
Conference means an entity that only has as members two or more institutions and that arranges championships and sets rules for intercollegiate athletic competitions for those members.
Cost of attendance has the meaning given in section 472 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087ll) and is calculated by an institution’s financial aid office using the same standards, policies, and procedures for all students.
Grant-in-aid means a scholarship, grant, stipend, or other financial help (including tuition, room, board, books, or funds for fees or personal expenses) that an institution provides to a student for undergraduate or graduate study and that does not exceed the student’s cost of attendance at that institution.
Image means, for a student athlete, a picture or video that identifies, is linked to, or is reasonably linked to that student athlete.
Who is affected and how:
Student-athletes: Gain explicit federal protection to negotiate and receive compensation for NIL, but must disclose deals to their institutions and may be subject to association or conference rules affecting eligibility or recruiting; they also receive required education on NIL and limited medical protections after leaving the institution.
Colleges and universities (public and private): Must implement disclosure and reporting processes, provide NIL education, maintain protections for athletic grants, potentially cover post-departure medical costs, and comply with association/database requirements to keep federal education funding—creating administrative and financial costs.
Interstate athletic associations and conferences: Must set up representative registration systems, maintain public searchable NIL databases, collect anonymized deal data from member institutions, and draft bylaws/rules on recruiting, transfers, and membership consistent with the Act; they will bear significant implementation and data‑management responsibilities.
Athlete agents and representatives: Face new disclosure and registration rules; unregistered agents are limited in how they can assist athletes and must obtain written consent after disclosures, increasing compliance tasks.
State and local governments: Lose authority to enforce conflicting NIL or athlete‑employment laws because of federal preemption; state attempts to classify student-athletes as employees or to regulate pay/eligibility will be constrained.
Students and families: Will be targeted for NIL education but may face privacy tradeoffs as anonymized deal data are shared; families of minors must consent for certain agent relationships.
Broader effects and tradeoffs:
Competitive balance and recruiting: Conference authority to limit pay inducements and to regulate transfers could affect recruiting dynamics; larger programs with greater NIL markets may still have advantage despite fair-market data.
Privacy vs. transparency: Public NIL databases aim to increase market transparency and support fair-value estimates but require careful design to avoid re-identifying athletes; institutions must redact personally identifiable information.
Administrative and financial burden: Smaller schools and associations may face higher relative costs to implement reporting, databases, education programs, and medical protections without new dedicated federal funding.
Legal landscape: The Act reduces state-level experimentation and litigation over athlete employment classification but could prompt new federal- or association-level enforcement and litigation over scope, eligibility rules, or data practices.
Equity concerns: Market-based NIL opportunities may widen disparities between athletes/sports with high commercial value and those without, even as the law attempts to standardize procedures and disclosure.
Referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.