Senate Commerce Committee chair introduces college-athlete name, image and likeness bill
Senate Democrats, including Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, have said they are interested in a much broader set of changes on behalf of athletes than Wicker’s bill offers.
The bill would prohibit the NCAA from having rules that “unduly” restrict athletes from making money off their name, image and likeness (NIL). But it would largely prevent athletes from having deals that conflict with school contracts.
It also would give the NCAA, conferences and schools protection from antitrust challenges to any changes they decide to make to their NIL rules before the measure goes into effect, as long as those changes don’t end up “unduly” restricting athletes’ NIL activities. The bill calls for the creation of an independent entity that would handle a variety of oversight activities, including handling grievances from athletes concerning restrictions on their NIL activities.
In short, the bill essentially would insulate the NCAA from lawsuits that might otherwise rise from the NIL rules changes the association appears headed toward adopting in January. The NCAA unveiled details of proposed NIL rules changes last month. And while those changes would give athletes new and significant abilities to make money from their NIL and other activities, the proposals include restrictions that would conflict with versions of NIL laws that have been passed by states including California and Florida.
this week introduced a bill that would expand the impact of her state’s law impact and could hasten potential conflicts between state statutes and NCAA rules.
However, as a federal bill, Wicker’s proposal would supersede any state NIL law. And the NCAA — in addition to wanting protection from antitrust suits like one that has been appealed to the Supreme Court and another now pending in a federal district court in California — has been lobbying hard in Washington to avoid having to deal with differing state NIL laws.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Reps. Anthony Gonzalez, R-Ohio, and Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., also have introduced NIL bills this year.
