Last month, in the final hour of the previous administration, the U.S. Department of Education threw a wrench into how teams were expected to approach revenue-sharing in the next era of college athletics.
In one of the biggest plot twists of the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) era, the Department of Education published a memo on January 17, guiding NIL compensation and compliance under Title IX law.
“When a school provides athletic financial assistance in forms other than scholarships or grants, including compensation for the use of a student-athletes’s NIL, such assistance also must be made proportionately available to male and female athletes,” the memo states, via ESPN’s Paula Lavigne and Dan Murphy.
However, on Wednesday morning, the new regime has decided to rescind the nine-page Title IX guidance from the final days under the Biden administration, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Education.
“The NIL guidance, rammed through by the Biden Administration in its final days, is overly burdensome, profoundly unfair, and it goes well beyond what agency guidance is intended to achieve,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. “Without a credible legal justification, the Biden Administration claimed that NIL agreements between schools and student athletes are akin to financial aid and must, therefore, be proportionately distributed between male and female athletes under Title IX.
“Enacted over 50 years ago, Title IX says nothing about how revenue-generating athletics programs should allocate compensation among student athletes. The claim that Title IX forces schools and colleges to distribute student-athlete revenues proportionately based on gender equity considerations is sweeping and would require clear legal authority to support it. That does not exist. Accordingly, the Biden NIL guidance is rescinded.”
So, what does this mean for college athletics?
In short, it appears that the NIL-related plans and structures that are being implemented by programs across the country are not in jeopardy, and should be able to function as expected before last month’s bombshell.
Of course, things could change between now and the final hearing in April, but in this moment college football fans can take a collective sigh of relief.
