Tag:NIL
The New Salary Cap in College Sports: How it Will Work, Why it is Needed, and the Arguments Against It
The overall dynamics of the college sports world has gone through some significant changes over the last few years due to the rise of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL), which allows student-athletes to earn payment for sponsorship deals. While this change to the college sports landscape is fairly widely praised, it has raised some significant debate about keeping a competitive balance in the world of college sports, and overall fairness to schools that cannot compete with the vast offers of other programs. This landscape may require a salary cap to alleviate the fairness concerns that arise.
Should Private Equity Be Involved in Collegiate Sports?
In October 2024, a judge gave preliminary approval of a settlement over a multibillion-dollar class action lawsuit involving former collegiate athletes being denied compensation, House v. NCAA. One of the settlement conditions will be that universities can now pay players directly. Teams must now decide whether to pay players directly or rely on NIL compensation to remain competitive in recruiting top talent. This demand for players has made some speculate that conferences and their member universities will turn to private equity to help fund these teams.
NCAA and Agent Representation: The Policy Implications of Agent’s Roles Pertaining to Proposed Name, Image, and Likeness Legislation
With changes to the regulations of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) student-athlete model looming overhead, the role of athlete representation is significant in the conversation relating to name, image, and likeness (NIL) of the student athlete. The NCAA has a long-standing “no-agent” rule that forbids student-athletes from being represented by an agent or organization in the marketing of his or her athletic ability until after the completion of their last intercollegiate contest. The NCAA determines a student-athlete’s eligibility based partly on their amateurism status, a term which is not expressly defined by the NCAA, although guided by several factors. Among those factors that would remove an athlete’s eligibility from NCAA competition, is a binding agreement to be represented by an agent at any time before or during a student-athletes collegiate career, however, there are a few exceptions to this factor.The underlying purpose of the “no-agent” rule is to protect student athletes from exploitation in the open market. To further regulate potential issues, the NCAA adopted the Uniform Athlete Agents Act, which effectively criminalizes contact between agents and athletes before the athletes completion of their last intercollegiate contest.