NCAA begins process of making NIL rules changes on its own

While the NCAA continues to press for Congressional legislation concerning some standardization of college athletes’ activities making money from their names, images and likenesses (NIL), one its top policy-making groups on Tuesday voted to begin advancing association rules changes that have the same goals.

The NCAA said in a statement that the Division I Council will now attempt to have proposals ready for votes in January that would:

• Require athletes to report to their schools any NIL agreements above a certain value – likely $600 – and the schools would then, at least twice a year, report anonymized information to either the NCAA’s national office or a third party designated by the association. Recruits would have to make disclosures to a school before it could offer a National Letter of Intent.

• Allow the NCAA to recommend the use of a standardized contract for all NIL deals involving athletes.

• Allow agents and financial advisors who are assisting athletes with NIL deals to voluntarily register with the NCAA, which would publish this information and give athletes the opportunity rate their experiences with these providers and potentially the opportunity to make grievances.

• Create the parameters for an educational program that would be designed to help athletes understand an array of topics connected to engaging in NIL activities.

The move to advance these concepts will not become official until the Council meeting ends Wednesday, but that is likely.

“I wish they had done this a year ago,” said Tom McMillen, president and CEO of the LEAD1 Association, which represents athletics directors of Football Bowl Subdivision schools. “But at least they’re doing it now.”

This puts the association on track with several of NCAA President Charlie Baker’s goals, the most basic of which is to position the NCAA to act on NIL activities by early in 2024, if Congress does not do so in the meantime. At present, the college-sports NIL environment is governed by a patchwork of state laws.

But McMillen, a former U.S. congressman, said the recent budget fights on Capitol Hill and now Tuesday’s ouster of Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as Speaker of the House, “are taking all of the oxygen out of the room. It makes it a lot less likely to get something (on college sports) done this year, although there may be a window in the early part of next year” before the 2024 election cycle begins in earnest.

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The challenge for the NCAA is enacting any association rules changes without facing legal action. In January 2021, the NCAA seemed on the verge of enacting rules changes related to NIL, including a reporting requirement for athletes. However, the Justice Department’s antitrust division leader at the time, Makan Delrahim, wrote a letter to then-NCAA President Mark Emmert that said the association’s efforts to regulate athletes’ NIL activities “may raise concerns under the antitrust laws.”

McMillen nevertheless lauded Baker and the Council for Tuesday’s action.

Absent help from Congress, “it’s all subject to litigation,” McMillen said, “but I’m glad they’re taking the risk. They have to take the risk. You can’t run this thing rudderless. Frankly, I think (the Council) could do more. But this is a good first step.”