Lawmakers attempt to tackle NIL, giving it the ‘old college try’

Congress has done nil to fix NIL in college sports.

Lawmakers get another chance to tackle NIL in early 2026. 

Let’s start with terms.

“NIL” refers to “name, image, likeness.” College athletes have made bank over the past few years, marketing themselves as their own product. They skip from school to school for more playing time. A bigger spotlight. And that leads to a better NIL deal.

Translation: You’ll probably make more from your NIL contract if you play for Ohio State and not North Dakota State.

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As everyone watches bowl games and the College Football Playoff this holiday season, fans inevitably crow about the lack of parity for schools from the Big 10 and SEC compared to the Mid-American Conference and Sunbelt Conference.

James Madison, we’re looking at you.

The NCAA appears incapacitated to act to rein in NIL and issue nationwide rules. So, they’ve turned to Congress for a fix. 

Good luck with that.

The House tried to advance a bill in early December. But that legislation plunged into a toxic political scrum. First of all, many Democrats opposed the bill. The legislation then lacked the votes thanks to some GOP defections. The timing of the legislation was in question, too. The House wasn’t addressing annual spending bills or health care, but college sports. Some Republicans thought this was a bad optic.

This commotion came just as former Ole Miss head football coach Lane Kiffin defected to SEC rival Louisiana State University (LSU) for a king’s ransom. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., wasted no time noting that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., are both LSU graduates and superfans of the school’s athletic programs. Jeffries questioned whether well-moneyed alumni connected to the school advocated for Johnson and Scalise to push the NIL bill at that time. Jeffries then anointed the legislation the “Lane Kiffin Protection Act.”

“People are asking the question, ‘Why did you decide to bring this bill this week?’ with all the other issues that the country is demanding that we focus on, led by the affordability crisis that they claim is a scam and a hoax,” posited Jeffries.

The controversy created a maelstrom too challenging for the House to handle. So the GOP brass yanked the legislation off the floor.

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House leaders hope to try again to regulate NIL and manage money in college sports in 2026.

“I think we need to do it sooner rather than later,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas.

“We need a national framework,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., at a House session to prepare a NIL bill over the summer. “One with clarity and real enforcement to bring fairness, transparency, and equity to the new NIL era.”

Lawmakers are now revising the NIL bill to set national standards — and coax enough lawmakers to support it. It’s possible Congress could vote around the same time the nation crowns the next college football champion.

“We want to get it right to really do what we can to save college sports,” said Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., the main author of the legislation.

The measure in question is known as the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements (SCORE) Act.

The bill would cap money schools can use from athletic revenue to pay athletes at 22 percent. Most Republicans support the measure. But Democrats believe the plan favors schools. Not athletes. Especially when it comes to labor rights – and treating athletes as university workers. 

“Passing the SCORE Act as it stands would only eliminate students’ abilities to collectively bargain,” said Rep. Emilia Sykes, D-Ohio.

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From a labor perspective, is a running back the same as a physics professor?

“I do not think they should be granted employee status,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., of student-athletes.

Some lawmakers aren’t sure whether Congress should even mettle in intercollegiate athletics. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., the top Democrat on the Commerce Committee, questioned the wisdom of addressing this issue in higher education compared to more pressing topics.

“You have to have a college to have college sports,” said Pallone as that panel prepped the bill over the summer. “And the way we’re going with this administration, I don’t even know if there’s going to be any colleges or universities left fighting for.”

Pallone says lawmakers should focus instead on “very real threats to our nation’s colleges and universities.”

Opponents of the legislation contend that the bill bends over backwards for major conferences. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, has problems with that. He demands overall better governance of college athletics. 

“We need to have a better structure around what is currently in NCAA. I think we need to have some reforms and some of the guardrails in what we’re doing. These coaches are getting these massive buyouts,” said Roy.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is pushing NIL regulation. But with a completely different approach. Hawley wants something which stretches far beyond the lines of the athletic fields and basketball arenas. Hawley advocates universal NIL rules — because of Big Tech and AI.

“We ought to give name, image and likeness rights to every single American. You should be able to control your image online. Control your data. Control your kids data,” said Hawley. “[It would be a] great thing to do for parents.”

So expect the House to try again on NIL in a few weeks. But consider the legislative agenda. A coalition of Democrats and four Republicans are deploying a gambit to go around the Speaker and force a vote to renew health care subsidies. That vote likely ripens around January 8 or 9. Obamacare subsidies expired. So that issue isn’t going away. And we haven’t even talked about trying to avoid a partial government shutdown in late January. The House and Senate have approved precisely zero additional spending plans after they ended the government shutdown in mid-November. Oh, there are the Epstein files and potential bipartisan action on accountability for Attorney General Pam Bondi.

You think they’re going to deal with college sports? An issue which has simmered on the Congressional backburner for years? And frankly, one which is just as complex and divisive as health care?

If lawmakers fail, they can say they gave it the old, college try.