Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons^™

Rewriting The Playbook: The X’S And O’S Of The House Settlement And The Future Of Student-Athletes’ Voice In Their Compensation, Matthew K.V. Glazer

Seattle University Law Review

Since the formation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the 1900s, collegiate athletes (student-athletes) have been prohibited from using their own name, image and likeness (NIL) for profit. But on July 1, 2021, the NCAA changed course and began allowing student-athletes to profit from their own NIL. In the past few years, U.S. college athletics have undergone significant changes, most notably introducing monetary compensation for student-athletes’ NIL. While these changes were long overdue and ultimately beneficial, they have significantly disrupted the landscape of college sports, giving rise to numerous challenges that some experts have compared to the “Wild …

From "Amateurs" To Employees: How Nil Has Reshaped The Employment Status Of College Athletes, Joey Griesinger

Wyoming Law Review

The emergence of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) compensation has fundamentally reshaped college athletics, exposing a growing disconnect between the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) “student-athlete” model and the economic reality of modern-day college athletics. While courts have historically deferred to the principle of amateurism, this Comment argues that NIL has eroded the factual and legal foundations underlying that deference.

This Comment reframes the employment-status inquiry through the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) economic-reality test, arguing that many college athletes today meet the statutory definition of “employees.” Drawing on Johnson v. NCAA as a structured articulation of longstanding FLSA principles, …

Does Name, Image, And Likeness Increase Gender Inequality In College Athletics?, Aimee Christenson

Political Science Theses and Capstones

In June of 2021, the National Collegiate Athletic Association adopted its first interim policy regarding Name, Image, and Likeness. From here, college athletes have been able to benefit from opportunities regarding their brand as an athlete. While this development has been historic in its expansion of rights to athletes, it highlights the inequities between male and female athletes. Title IX requires equal opportunity for male and female students. This research raises questions about whether NIL is increasing the disparity between male and female athletes. To answer this question, I looked at NIL data collected by Kyle Ems on the NIL …

Navigating The Legal Risk Universities' Healthcare Providers Potentially Face From Medical Decisions Impacting Collegiate Athletes' Future Nil Income While Following The Ncaa's Mental Health Best Practices, Kenneth D. Ferguson

Faculty Works

This Essay is written to address a series of questions encompassing name, image, and likeness (NIL) opportunities available to collegiate athletes in sports where the potential is high for head and other career-ending injuries. Sports performance can produce significant economic value through NIL. Decisions made by team physicians, athletic trainers, or other healthcare professionals may affect a collegiate athlete's potential for financial gains expected through NIL. These physicians, athletic trainers, and other healthcare professionals will have to consider whether they could be held personally liable for health care-related decisions affecting financial gains collegiate athletes could potentially experience from NIL.

Part …

The Constitutional Problems With Delegating Legislative Power To College Sports, Sam C. Ehrlich

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Part I of this Article discusses the current landscape of college sports, discussing why the NCAA has sought federal litigation to better control the industry and what legislative efforts are underway to potentially grant those wishes. Part II then reviews case law that defines the contours of the private non-delegation doctrine, focusing on the Amtrak litigation and National HBPA and how those two strings of cases place NCAA-related legislative efforts in constitutional peril. Part III will then closely review the currently proposed legislation that would, if passed, grant regulatory power to the NCAA or a new private entity, …

Nil Collectives And The Disadvantage Dilemma: Disparities And Challenges In Collegiate Athletics, Arianna Garcia

FIU Law Review

For a long time, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)’s principle of amateurism, the concept that student-athletes should not profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL) while competing in collegiate athletics, was strongly upheld. However, it quickly became a challenge for the NCAA to defend its principle of amateurism after thousands of advocates, including universities and student-athletes themselves, began to criticize the NCAA. Finally, after decades of fighting for more equitable rights for student-athletes, the NCAA made a change to its NIL Policy as a result of two major landmark cases. The NCAA, however, now faces another challenge amidst …

A Playbook For Nil Progress: Uplifting Student-Athletes And Agents Through An Updated Athlete Agents Act, John Smeloff

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Taming The Wild West: Can Order Be Restored To The Collegiate Playing Fields?, Edward D. Cavanagh

Faculty Publications

On May 23, 2024, the NCAA and member conferences entered into a historic settlement to resolve the House case, a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of some 14,000 college athletes seeking damages for lost opportunities to gain financial benefits from their schools' use of their name, image, and likeness ("NIL") due to the NCAA's past denials of NIL compensation from media broadcasts, video games, and third parties. The trial court had certified damage classes consisting of (1) men's football and basketball players; (2) women's basketball players; and (3) other sports. As part of the settlement, defendants agreed to pay …

Rethinking College Football Grant Of Rights Agreements, Drew Thornley, John T. Holden

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

On The Increased Prevalence Of Buyouts In College Athletics, Joshua S. Lacoste

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ncaa Enactment Of A Disciplinary Policy: Uniformity To Regain Institutional Legitimacy, Matteson Landau

Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Review

This article examines issues surrounding decentralized disciplinary systems and inconsistent enforcement against student-athletes who engage in criminal misconduct across the National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”). The NCAA recognizes the inherent conflicts of interest that arise when institutions are left to regulate their own recruiting practices. To negate these conflicts, the NCAA has established a robust disciplinary system, the NCAA Committee on Infractions, which oversees investigations into violations of NCAA Bylaws, reviews materials provided by the athlete and/or institution, and issues binding rulings which may include suspensions and fines. Yet the NCAA fails to see how the same conflict issues arise …

Beyond Amateurism: Examining The Potential Labor Expenses Of Ncaa Student-Athlete Employment, Alayna K. Falak

Honors Thesis

In light of recent administrative developments urging the classification of student-athletes as employees, litigation challenging the current status of student-athletes, and the Supreme Court’s willingness to tackle National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) issues, many questions surrounding the future of college sports under an employment model have emerged. The authors analyzed key litigation, recent developments from administrative agencies, and academic literature. Then publicly available data was used from the NCAA, the United States Department of Labor (DOL), and other sources to construct two estimates of what it would cost the NCAA member institutions to treat their Division I athletes as employees. …

The Deception Of Student Athlete Protection: The Failures Of The Miller-Ayala Athlete Agents Act In The Age Of Nil, Matthew R. Hand

Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mississippi's Contribution To Informing The Push For Federal Legislation, Nolan G. Forthaus

SLU Law Journal Online

The NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) legislation landscape is rapidly evolving, affecting how college athletes can profit from their NIL. While college athletes nationwide can now benefit from their NIL, state laws play a crucial role. Under the interim policy, college athletes attending schools in states with active NIL laws must comply with those state laws and any institutional and conference policies. The interim policy remains in effect until federal legislation or new NCAA rules are adopted. The state laws of Mississippi can help inform the federal push for a NIL bill.

College Athlete Employment Model: An “Amateur” Attempt To Resolve The Exploitation Created By The Ncaa, Ryan Brida

University of Miami Business Law Review

The college sports industry is deeply rooted within the culture of the United States. Its popularity has only grown, which has led to business opportunities and vast economic wealth for many within the National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”). This wealth is mainly distributed among, but not limited to, NCAA executives, conference commissioners, university presidents, coaches, and athletic directors. The individuals actually taking part in the athletic contests, the college athletes, are excluded from this list. Specifically, looking at Division I college athletes, the harsh reality is that these young men and women are participating in a billion-dollar industry and not …

Tennessee V. Nat'l Collegiate Athletic Ass'n: Contracts - Name, Image And Likeness, David Draper

Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law

No abstract provided.

A Roadmap To Nil And Taxation, Doron Narotzki, Yariv Brauner

UF Law Faculty Publications

The landscape of college sports has dramatically changed in recent years. What was once considered a place for amateur athletes pursuing education now partially mirrors, at least for some student-athletes, the structure and financial dynamics of professional leagues such as the NFL, NBA, and MLB. However, the collegiate sports ecosystem still remains distinct, shaped by unique regulatory frameworks governed by the NCAA. This article reviews and analyses the implications of these changes, and focuses on the tax considerations surrounding Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rights and how the evolving nature of college sports also presents certain tax implications, some of …

Are Collective Joint Employers Of College Athletes? Empirical Analysis Of Nil Deals And School Policies, Michael H. Leroy

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Who Owns Your Name? The Trend And Economic Impact Of Personal Trademarks In The Ncaa Nil Aftermath, Daniel Foster

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

To aid in understanding the prevalence of personal athlete logos and the trend of ownership and design, Section II will outline the history of this area of trademark law in the United States. It will provide background on the theory of trademark ownership and the development of this intellectual property discipline in the athletic and celebrity sphere. Section II will look at the two common and distinct processes, a company-designed logo versus an athlete-designed logo, and the modern trends in this area. Moving on from this historical discussion, Section III will examine the 2021 decision of NCAA v. Alston, the …

The Current State Of Student-Athlete Nil Rights: How Congress Should Respond To The Rapidly Changing Landscape Of Inter-Collegiate Sports, Kyle Aronson

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

Collegiate student-athletes began signing sponsorship deals that compensate them for their name, image and likeness beginning in July 2021. Since its inception, the NCAA has prohibited student-athletes from receiving any outside monetary compensation to preserve traditional notions of amateurism. States have begun to pass legislation that allow for student-athlete compensation following recent decisions by the Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit suggesting that the NCAA’s historic practice may run afoul of antitrust law. This comment analyzes issues with the current state-by-state patchwork of laws that formulate the current landscape of collegiate sports. Finally, this comment will show why centralized, federal regulation …

In A League Of Her Own: Why Female Student-Athletes Are Poised To Win Big In The Nil Era With A Properly Crafted Federal Law, Anna G. Williams

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ncaa V. Alston (Case Notes), Carson Blakely

Tennessee Law Review

In August 2013, I was a thirteen-year-old immersed in the world of NCAA Football 14, a popular video game by Electronic Arts (EA). Through my digital replicas and the actual Tennessee Volunteer football players, my friends and I led the Vols to three consecutive BCS National Championships. My fictional character, a top running back, won three Heisman Trophies, which remains my greatest athletic accomplishment to date. Then, EA announced the discontinuation of the NCAA Football franchise, leaving millions of digital coaches, including myself, perplexed.1 Little did I know that the issue at hand was the complex legal realm of Name, …

Ncaa V. Alston, Emma S. Fowler

Tennessee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Narrowing The Playing Field On Nil Collectives, Kathryn Kisska-Schulze

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Largest Wave In The Ncaa's Ocean Of Change: The "College Athletes Are Employees" Issue Reevaluated, Joshua Hernandez

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Student-Athlete Or More? Why Cadet-Athletes At The United States Service Academies Should Also Benefit From Nil, Michelle A. Svilpe

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

For The (Caleb) Love Of The Game, Let States Write Their Own Nil Rules: Why Federal Nil Legislation Would Create Inefficient And Unfair Tax Consequences For Collegiate Student-Athletes, Cecilia Barreca

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Abandonment Of International College Athletes By Nil Policy, Victoria J. Haneman, David P. Weber

Scholarly Works

A new era in college sports dawned on July 1, 2021, when the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced that college athletes were (subject to various limitations and restrictions) entitled to earn money based upon their name, image, and likeness ("NIL"). NIL is now a billion-dollar industry. The more than 450,000 college athletes across the United States are now able to leverage NIL to make paid appearances, endorse products or services on social media, receive compensation for autograph signings, and promote local and national businesses. Excluded from most NIL opportunities, however, are the 12 percent of athletes recruited from outside of …

The First Step: Student-Athletes Finally Get The Right To Be Compensated For Their Names, Images, And Likenesses, Joseph Ranieri

DePaul Journal of Sports Law

No abstract provided.

The Ncaa's Rise To Absolute Power And Confronting Its Distortion Of Amateurism, Terek J. Kirsch

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

This paper examines the progression of the intercollegiate athletic space, from a small regatta in 1852 to the massive athletic environment we know now in contemporary society. It finds the National Collegiate Athletic Association snared in a trap of circular logic that has been closing in on it since its conception, as it has defined collegiate athletes as amateurs and then proceeded to argue for amateur status for those athletes because of the definition that it wrote. This paper concludes in its final two chapters, after analyzing the recent Supreme Court case NCAA v. Alston, and the Name, Image, and …