Power 5 Proposes NIL Legislation While COVID-19 Threatens Football

The Power 5 conferences have proposed legislation governing name, image and likeness (NIL), according to a Sports Illustrated story that directs light on a potentially transformative issue that’s been lost amid the turmoil and uncertainty generated by COVID-19.

The law pertaining to college athletes receiving payment for endorsements is scheduled to go into effect for the 2021-22 academic year, so time is running out.

“It’s the train that’s rolling down the track, and it’s gathering momentum,” Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton said Friday during an interview on Sirius XM Pac-12 Channel 373.

Knowlton expands on the competing priorities facing athletic directors later in this story, but first we address the Sports Illustrated story, which reports that Power 5 conferences are trying to restrict what student-athletes will be able to do under the proposed legislation, which is called the Student-Athlete Equity Act of 2020.

The Sports Illustrated story, posted Saturday, begins this way:

The NCAA's Power 5 conferences' proposed legislation governing name, image and likeness (NIL) is as many expected: filled with restrictions. According to a summary of the Power 5’s Draft [click here to view the draft], athletes cannot sign endorsement deals until they complete their first semester of college, can be barred from entering into certain NIL ventures and must make public NIL contracts.

Power 5 athletic leaders, feverishly working this summer on NIL legislation, plan to present the semi-finished product to Congress next week in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, the latest step in advancing NIL down the path to a universal Congressional bill. Sports Illustrated obtained a summary of the proposed legislation, which is called the Student-Athlete Equity Act of 2020.

(Click here for the entire Sports Illustrated story.)

The discussion on what athletes should be able to receive monetarily extends from a complete open market without restrictions to a closed system of unpaid labor.

What the Power 5 conferences are proposing will no doubt be criticized by organizations backing college athletes’ rights as well as legislators who seek a more compensation for college athletes.

California was the first to pass a bill allowing college athletes to receive monetary compensation, a law scheduled to go into effect in 2023.

But other states have followed. Having laws that vary from state to state create a potential problem for the NCAA, Power 5 conferences and college football and basketball. The Power 5 proposal also suggests that a Certification Office should be established within the Federal Trade Commission to license and regulate agents and advisors.

It is a lot for athletic directors to deal with at a time when a college football season is in jeopardy because of the rising number of COVID-19 cases.

“In a normal year, athletic directors would be completely focused on this [NIL issue] and making sure that we had guard rails and we were taking care of student-athletes and we were working through NIL,” Knowlton said in Friday’s interview. “It would have been consuming for us.

“I spent an hour today on a call with Lead1 [an association that represents FBS athletic directors in how rules are enacted and implemented] with a lot of folks that are working different pieces of what might be NIL, and I thought to myself, ‘It’s almost surreal that I’m thinking about this at a time when we’re making these monster decisions that affect 850 student-athletes in 30 sports [at Cal].’

“This morning at the Chancellor Cabinet we’re wrestling with these monster decisions, and then I’m trying to put my brain around the NIL, which is coming. I mean, it’s the train that’s rolling down the track and it’s gathering momentum.

“Yeah, it’s important and we gotta keep an eye on it, and it takes a little extra effort during these challenging times.”

Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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