02-19-2025
In the last few days of the Biden administration, the Dept of Education released a fact sheet addressing the implications of Name, Image, and Likeness Activities (NIL) on Title IX requirements. It identified NIL compensation as “athletic financial assistance.” Because of that identification, Title IX would require institutions to compensate athletes in a nondiscriminatory manner.
Under the new administration, the DOE rescinded that fact sheet, calling it “overly burdensome, profoundly unfair,” and beyond what agency guidance should do. The new DOE asserted that the 50-year-old statute “says nothing about how revenue-generating athletic programs should allocate compensation among student-athletes.” Without express guidance from the older statute, it does not regulate NIL compensation.
Prior to the guidance repeal, the NCAA and other major sports conferences agreed to pay almost $2.8 billion in back pay to former athletes as part of a settlement to end NIL litigation. The agreement established a revenue-sharing framework for athletes of $20 million annually. Student-athletes’ ability to earn NIL pay, looser restrictions on athlete transfers, and potential revenue-sharing between schools and athletes is still new for the NCAA. Observers have expressed concern about imbalances in the pay to athletes for men’s and women’s sports that could violate Title VII. The administration’s new policy will likely allow more payments to athletes in sports like college football and men’s basketball, which make the most money for schools. Legal challenges to the disparity in settlement funds paid to men’s and women’s sports are expected.