Department of Education Rescinds Historic Title IX Guidance for NIL in College Sports

The Department of Education cleared a major hurdle for NIL and revenue sharing in a historic reversal of the Title IX adherence ruling.

Jack Gruber-USA TODAY

College football programs across the nation received massive news regarding NIL payouts and revenue sharing in accordance with Title IX.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) promulgated under Biden that Name, Image, and Likeness payouts were to be considered "athletic financial assistance," thus subject to Title IX, but the Trump administration rescinded this guidance on Wednesday.

No longer at risk of violating Title IX by not proportionally dividing payments between male and female athletes, college sports can move forward with a clear path to revenue sharing and focus those efforts primarily on football and men's basketball.

In the press release by OCR, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Craig Trainor, points to the frantic nature of pushing the NIL ruling in the final days of the previous administration and argues that it was an overreach.

“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," the release reads. "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."

It was a bit of a surprising classification of NIL as financial assistance when the name directly implies a contribution via a player's name, image, and likeness.

Not only did the Title IX guidance make for massive headaches among athletic departments, but it didn't really seem to illuminate why revenue that only certain sports generate is to be split amongst all athletes at the university. The release continues by asserting that Title IX itself says nothing in its framework about eligibility and the allotment of compensation.

"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."

Based on a straightforward interpretation of the law, it is valid to assert that Title IX does not explicitly mandate proportionate compensation payouts based on market value or a player's right to publicity. It seems unlikely that a court would say different.

Title IX guidance covers fair and equal opportunity for members of both sexes, as the guidance reads on the U.S. Department of Justice website. If a school only has a men's program for one sport, they must either have a women's team or allow members of the excluded sex to try out for non-contact sports.

It covers equipment and facilities, both for the sport and for housing and dining. Nowhere does it outline market value, name, image and likeness, or revenue sharing.

The future of college sports can now move forward with freedom in revenue sharing for their profitable athletes and funneling NIL resources to their football and basketball programs.

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