President Donald Trump’s administration rescinded Title IX guidance put forth by former President Joe Biden that would have resulted in significant changes to Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) in college athletics, the Department of Education announced on Wednesday.
In former President Biden’s final days in office, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights issued guidance related to Title IX that stated that revenue-sharing payments from schools to athletes must be “proportionately” distributed to men and women athletes. If the revenue-sharing payments did not get distributed equally between men’s and women’s sports, schools would be in violation of Title IX.
This guidance put the revenue-sharing plans of several major college football powers in jeopardy. Schools like Ohio State, that had one of the sport’s most expensive rosters this past season en route to a national championship, planned to push most revenue-sharing funds towards its football program. The Buckeyes, of course, are not alone. Other perennial national powers were planning a similar approach in order to acquire and retain the sport’s best players.
The Trump administration has rescinded that guidance, which will now allow athletic departments to follow the plans of pushing revenue to the sports where they see the most value added. In most cases that will be college football, but in other cases, that will be men’s college basketball.
“The NIL guidance, rammed through by the Biden Administration in its final days, is overly burdensome, profoundly unfair, and it goes well beyond what agency guidance is intended to achieve. Without a credible legal justification, the Biden Administration claimed that NIL agreements between schools and student athletes are akin to financial aid and must, therefore, be proportionately distributed between male and female athletes under Title IX. Enacted over 50 years ago, Title IX says nothing about how revenue-generating athletics programs should allocate compensation among student athletes. The claim that Title IX forces schools and colleges to distribute student-athlete revenues proportionately based on gender equity considerations is sweeping and would require clear legal authority to support it. That does not exist. Accordingly, the Biden NIL guidance is rescinded,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in the release on Wednesday.
Revenue-sharing is expected to become a major part of the college athletics landscape, which could begin as early as this spring.
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