The Department of Education this week rescinded Title IX guidance put forward by former president Joe Biden that would have resulted in significant changes to NIL in college athletics.
“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," wrote acting assistant secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor on the DOE's website. "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 Accordingly, the Biden NIL guidance is rescinded."
Biden's guidance directed 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.
That guidance from Biden would have put a number of schools at risk of Title IX violations. Ohio State, which had college football's most expensive rosters this past season, planned to push most revenue-sharing funds toward its football programs.
Revenue-sharing is expected to become a major part of the college athletics landscape, which could begin as early as this spring.
