Dr. Coakley talks about how each state legislature affects NIL, and how no two states are the same.
It is critical that college sports are regulated at a national level. This ensures the uniformity of rules and a level playing field for student-athletes. Some of these laws allow for nearly unregulated use of NIL by student-athletes, while other bills under consideration would erode the NCAA’s ability to maintain the collegiate model even further, undermining the NCAA’s model of amateur intercollegiate athletics and threatening to transform student-athletes into paid professional employees of their schools. The evolving legal and legislative landscape around these issues could not only undermine college sports as a part of higher education but also significantly limit the NCAA’s ability to meet the needs of college athletes moving forward.

Why is federal NIL legislation important to support college athletes?

A federal, nationwide solution for name, image, and likeness is necessary and would provide student-athletes across the country a fair, uniform collegiate experience and help ensure that opportunities provided to hundreds of thousands of student-athletes participating in nonrevenue sports continue to be supported. The Association looks forward to working with Congress to enact legislation that ensures a federal solution to NIL legislation, provides narrow safe harbor protections against ongoing litigation, and reaffirms the nonemployment status of student-athletes. This approach will provide for a uniform name, image, and likeness approach that will result in fair, national competition for all student-athletes and protect and ensure opportunities for future student-athletes.