The NCAA Power Four commissioners have called upon Congress to regulate Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) as well as the transfer portal to create a national standard.
“Greg Sankey, Jim Phillips, Tony Petitti, and Brett Yormark have all been on Capitol Hill to discuss with Congress how it can help regulate NIL and the transfer portal, the latter of which continues to be a hit among college athletes looking to score more money,” reported Fox News.
Since it opened in late March, as many as 1,000 Division I college basketball players have entered the transfer portal, a database listing their desire to transfer institutions.
During an interview on Special Report, Brett Yormark, the Big 12 commissioner, told Brett Baier that Congress needs to set a national standard.
“We need help from Congress,” said Yormark. “From where I sit today, federal preemption, having a standardized platform that oversees and governs NIL, is critically important. Today, 34 states see it very differently, and it’s relatively unruly.”
Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti added that state-by-state regulations have become too complicated and costly to be sustainable..
“The volume of laws that are being passed on a state level are making it really difficult for us to regulate and compete nationally,” said Petitti. “Every single time someone doesn’t like a ruling, or something comes from the NCAA, we end up in litigation. Those rules then get aggregated, and we’re back to the start.”
“We’re hopeful that the combination of what we’ve done in the settlement will give us an opportunity, with some help from Congress, to really put a system in a place that has some stability,” he added. “We’ve crossed the bridge of being willing to provide revenue … but need structure. We can’t have a system that has complete unregulated movement.”
In 2024, the NCAA voted to accept a $2.8 billion settlement deal that would allow schools to pay 22 percent of their revenue from media rights, ticket sales, and sponsorships directly to college athletes.
“NOLA.com noted that the settlement would offer more than $2.5 billion to athletes who could not earn NIL money before the NCAA changed its rules in 2021,” added Fox News. “The report also noted that most of the damage would be paid out to former football and men’s basketball players of power conference schools because their sports bring in the most revenue.”
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