February 4, 2021 | less than a minute read

Hot of the presses - Another federal NIL bill proposed today

Taylor English

The latest federal bill to propose a Name, Image and Likeness right was just introduced by Sen. Chris Murphy, and Rep. Lori Trahan, a former Division I volleyball player at Georgetown University.

The College Athlete Economic Freedom Act is similar to other NIL proposals that college athletes to sign endorsement deals and utilize agents.

Notably the new bill supports group licensing - the ability of college athletes to collectively negotiate the use of their NIL, including to video-game publishers. The Act would explicitly establish a federal right for individual or group negotiation, and would prohibit the NCAA, conferences and colleges from interfering.

The Act would also preempt any state laws on the subject, ensuring a national standard on athletes’ rights.

Murphy and Trahan’s Act will vie with other NIL proposals, including Senator Roger Wicker’s (R-Miss.) Collegiate Athletes Compensation Rights Act and the more far-reaching College Athletes Bill of Rights, introduced by Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). With the Democrats in control of both the House and Senate, as well as the White House, there’s a chance a federal law will be passed. The clock is ticking, however, as Florida’s NIL statute is set to go into effect in July. Meanwhile, the NCAA has indefinitely punted on NIL for the time being, with the U.S. Supreme Court set to hear NCAA v. Alston (which concerns the related, but different issue, of grants-in-aid). Without a national NIL standard, expect to see litigation.