What They Are Saying: Key Takeaways from the House Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee Hearing "NIL Playbook: Proposal to Protect Student Athletes' Dealmaking Rights"

January 18, 2024

The status quo with NIL

Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair:

“The current patchwork of state laws is confusing for athletes, schools, and conferences alike. It is unreasonable to expect student athletes to balance their studies while navigating a maze of complex and conflicting laws.”

Jeff Jackson, Commissioner, The Missouri Valley Conference:

“All of the sudden NIL wasn’t NIL. It became inducement. It became ways to poach and recruit student-athletes. It became fraught with fraud. We all of the sudden had an underground market in which people were pestering, harassing, reaching out to our student-athletes trying to exploit them and to take advantage of the fact there was a financial opportunity involved.”  

On the need for Congress to act

Congressman Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee Chair:

“To ensure a long-term future for college athletics, we must promote safe guardrails and a level playing field. There's no doubt Congress needs to act.”

Charlie Baker, President, National Collegiate Athletic Association:

“While [the NCAA’s] reforms are popular and will prove transformative on their own, we believe they’re inadequate to assure the safeguard for college sports’ future. Even with the actions, there remain threats to college sports that we lack the legal authority to address…I absolutely believe we can reach a bipartisan bill that advances the promise of college athletics and ensures the accountability that we all believe needs to be there.”

Jeff Jackson, Commissioner, The Missouri Valley Conference:

“It's extremely important to create an atmosphere where we can allow student athletes to take advantage of NIL – and keep them safe.”

Meredith Page, Student-Athlete, Radford University Volleyball:

“Having a national framework will allow for uniformity for every student-athlete to be protected to pursue their athletic careers under the same rules, regulations, and consequences.”

Kaitlin "Keke" Tholl, Student-Athlete, University of Michigan Softball:

“The goal for Congress should be to ensure an even playing field for all institutions and for all student athletes.”

Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI):

“As someone who represents a significant college athlete population at schools big and small – Michigan has 29 programs – I want all 29 of those programs to stay there. Eastern is a very respected small school, but it can’t pay for its sports the way others do. I’m committed to crafting meaningful federal legislation that ensures all college athletes are heard, protected, and prioritized.”

The proposed Fair College Sports Act

Congressman Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee Chair:

“We are considering the Fair College Sports Act. The goal of this bill is to establish a clear set of rules so that young people are protected, opportunities for them are promoted, and amateur sports of all kinds are preserved – without expanding government.”

Charlie Baker, President, National Collegiate Athletic Association:

“Draft legislation has many critical working components, which includes supporting and protecting student athletes by preempting state NIL laws and addressing critical issues such as the employment status of student athletes.”

Jeff Jackson, Commissioner, The Missouri Valley Conference:

“One of the things that we appreciated seeing in the discussion draft was the understanding and the appreciation of the continued tethering of the academic importance that our student athletes will need to experience.” 

On the employment model

Charlie Baker, President, National Collegiate Athletic Association:

”The simple truth is, if you convert all those student athletes who currently benefit from scholarships, who currently benefit from a whole series of other mechanisms that schools make available to them to enhance their educational experience, you’re just going to lose an enormous part of what college sports looks like… I don’t think employment works for all of college sports and I think the math, in this particular case, is pretty clear.”

Meredith Page, Student-Athlete, Radford University Volleyball:

“An employment model presents many unknowns about the future of what collegiate athletics looks like with many questions to consider: Would institutions cut athletic programs to fund the revenue generating sports? How would this impact Title IX protections? What would happen to athletic scholarships? What does this do to the status of international student-athletes? Many of these questions are at the forefront of student-athletes’ minds and need to be resolved before any new model is implemented.”

Kaitlin "Keke" Tholl, Student-Athlete, University of Michigan Softball:

“I would not want to be an employee…what if I’m not performing well on the field, will my coaches fire me? Will I have to pay into insurance plans? So many questions come to mind.” 

Meredith Page, Student-Athlete, Radford University Volleyball:

“The student-athlete experience prepares individuals from all walks of life to write their own story. The elimination of athletes by classification of employment would be detrimental to the framework of college athletics and the dreams of youth athletes across the country. Swimming, volleyball, tennis, and the rest on the long list of non-revenue generating sports cannot be forgotten. It’s so easy to lose touch with who is behind those titles. Future doctors, lawyers, CEOs, and most importantly the next generation of leaders. They do not deserve to get lost in the narrative.”

Jeff Jackson, Commissioner, The Missouri Valley Conference:

“Our schools do not generate any significant revenue except in one sport, and because of that, the revenue that is earned in that sport is dispersed to help support the other sports that they have on their campuses. We would not be able to exist in a model, at least in the way that we are now, in which student-athletes were employees or we did not have some safeguards and rails around NIL.”

Kaitlin "Keke" Tholl, Student-Athlete, University of Michigan Softball:

“I’m against the unionization of student athletes for the pure fact that I think at universities what would happen is our revenue-generating sports would make a union for themselves and take their money with them. Like Congresswoman Dingle said, the University of Michigan has 29 sports teams. You would lose 75 percent of them because they would have zero funding to work.”