Being new to NIL might make you feel like a small fish in a big pond. As a new earner, you’ll find that colleges and universities are well established- they have marketing departments, legal teams, board of directors. In addition to that, businesses that you partner with can easily produce contracts, paperwork and more when you partner them.
So what are your rights as a student-athlete? Do you have rights as an NIL earner? The good news is, legislation is happening to help protect student-athletes and their ability to become NIL earniers, including protecting their physical and mental health. This post shares a few of those bills and acts that are currently in progress.
Understanding Rights and Protections for NIL Earners
The College Athlete Protection and Compensation Act of 2021. This act outlines NIL compensation of collegiate student-athletes and the protections they have. It also would come with additional provisions to protect athletes, which would include male and female athletes having access to the same facilities and services during tournaments, and a requirement for athletes to participate in financial literacy courses with topics that relates to their NIL income.
The College Athlete Protection and Compensation Act would also require more transparency on behlaf of schools, requiring colleges and universities to preoprt on revenues and average number of hours athletes spend on athletic activities. This could be very helpful in helping future collegiate-level athletes in understanding what their academic and athletic commitments will look like.
The Protecting Athletes, Schools and Sports Act of 2023. This act mostly focuses on protections for universities and activities for NIL collectives. However, benefits for athletes under this bill would include guaranteed health insurance for sports related injuries for athletes. Qualifying athletes would have to be uninsured and coverage could last up to eight years following graduation. This act would also help establish a uniform contract athletes can use for their NIL deals and provide courses relating to financial literacy and other leal issues for athletes.
The College Athlete Economic Freedom Act. This bill protects student-athletes at the federal level, providing them with protections that prevent colleges and universities from determining how athletes use their name, image, likeness, and earnings. The College Athlete Economic Freedom Bill also prevents schools or other athletic associations from controlling who represents athletes and their brands.
A cool thing to note is that this bill includes the provision that could allow international student-athletes to use their NIL without violating their F-1 student visa status.
The College Athletes Bill of Rights. This bill prevents institutions such as colleges, universities, conferences and others from restricting student-athletes ability to market their NIL. It not only does it set penalties for entities that violate this bill, but it’s goal is to protect the the overall interests of athletes related to health, wellness and safety.