NCAA Athletes Left Exposed as Efforts to Tighten NIL Rules Stall

Efforts to protect students from predatory deals over their name, image and likeness have trickled through state legislatures and Congress over the last year but few have succeeded.

That’s left students vulnerable, as university administrators warn the fledgling NIL program is an out-of-control train struggling to keep up with the new landscape of college sports.

“There are a zillion questions,” said Jill Bodensteiner, the athletics director at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. “What can the institution do? … What can our multimedia rights partner do? What can your foundation do? There are literally hundreds of interpretation questions that we are dealing with on a day-to-day basis.”

A Bloomberg Law investigation published this week detailed how students across the country are vulnerable to exploitation as fledgling businesses and agents approach them with ways to profit off their name, image, and likeness.

While lucrative NIL deals signed by athletes such as Louisiana State University gymnast Olivia Dunne and the University of Miami basketball Cavinder twins have drawn headlines, most NIL pacts are much smaller one-time agreements worth far less money. In some of those deals, Bloomberg Law found, students have signed away their future rights or been approached with contracts that profit the companies more than the players.

Some state legislatures have enacted rules to safeguard the athletes. Pennsylvania and Virginia require agents who work with students to be licensed. Texas mandates that students attend financial literacy and life-skills workshops at the beginning of their first and third years. Arizona prohibits athletes from signing contracts that violate any party’s intellectual property rights.

Yet other state bills have hit roadblocks. Bills in Kansas and Iowa that would have required state licenses for student-athlete agents died in committee.

And federal legislation has been slow-moving.

“Whether congressional action is achievable is a matter of debate,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey during the conference’s annual Media Days event on Monday. “The reality is, only Congress can fully address the challenges facing college athletics.”

Congressional committees have met several times in the last two years to hear feedback on a potential NIL law that would standardize rules across all states.

The NCAA’s newly minted president, Charlie Baker, advocated that a federal law include a uniform NIL agreement. The lack of transparency in the NIL space “puts student-athletes in jeopardy of exploitation by bad actors,” he said in March.

Tim Buckley, NCAA vice president of external affairs, told Bloomberg Law that the NCAA cannot govern many of the people involved in NIL. A federal law can fill that gap, he said.

“It’s difficult for the association to enforce rules against people or entities outside of colleges and universities, say a collective or an agent,” he said. The NCAA needs Congress to help set a level playing field, he said.

Members of Congress have drafted at least eight bills since 2019, but none have passed. Among the most recent efforts, draft legislation sponsored by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), would establish a federal regulatory NIL body and mandate that agents register within 30 days of contracts being signed.

“Our goal is to ensure that NIL deals are transparent and fair, while protecting the integrity of college athletics,” Bilirakis said in a May press release.

The fledgling NIL industry is unfolding so rapidly that universities are finding it hard to keep up. In June, the NCAA told member schools that its policies should supersede state laws, but it’s unclear if that’s enforceable.

“What are the unintended consequences to some of this movement that we’re not paying attention to?” asked Mary-Beth Cooper, president of Springfield College in Massachusetts and a member of the NCAA Board of Governors.

Even as such questions mount, the NCAA “cannot police” hundreds of thousands of student-athletes, said former college track star Kendall Spencer, now an IP attorney.

“Think about it, you’re asking an organization to find a way to police a system that the federal government hasn’t even figured out,” he said.

Attorneys who spoke with Bloomberg Law said they doubt any bill before Congress will gain enough momentum to become law in the near future.

That lack of action comes as athletes and administrators said stringent safeguards are needed to protect those students approached with NIL offers.

“They spend their whole life honing in on their skill, not the documents, contracts, tax forms,” said NFL agent Ellen Zavian. “So to think that someone with very little knowledge in that area is not going to be taken advantage of, as they say, I have a Brooklyn Bridge to sell to you.”