NIL Discussions Continuing to Expand: 38 Days Until Kansas Football

With Congress looking at multiple NIL proposals and the NCAA looking for backup ways to regulate NIL, what does it mean for the Jayhawks?

© NIL Summit via USA Today Network

While the discussions never really went away, it's hard to blame any college football fans that have lost sight of the Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) discussions. After all, ever since the NCAA changed the rules to allow for NIL compensation, there have been countless opinions, "expert" articles and proposals for how to standardize NIL opportunities for athletes. Some would say it is a matter of fairness, others talk about shady dealings that are allowing some schools to get ahead, but overall, the common theme is about control.

And that's why the latest proposal to make its way through Congress is more of the same. Today, Senators Jo Manchin and Tommy Tuberville released a bipartisan NIL bill that is aimed at both standardizing NIL requirements across the nation and create a lot more certainty for coaches and athletes alike. Specifically, collectives would be required to be affiliated with a school, schools would be required to provide coverage for sports-related injuries after their eligibility has ended, and athletes would be unable to transfer during their first three years of eligibility. The bill also charges the Federal Trade Commission to be able to enforce the provisions, including the public disclosure of all contracts and presumably the investigation of using NIL for recruiting inducements.

It came on the heels of a bill from Senators Richard Blumenthal, Cory Booker and Jerry Moran that was introduced last week. That bill included a preemption of all state laws and establishing a database of NIL contracts. And Senator Ted Cruz introduced a bill that would also preempt all state laws and ensure that athletes are not considered employees of their university.

Regardless of your opinions on any of the particular provisions in the bills, it's clear that the intentions is to greatly change the way that NIL is governed. Currently, individual states have set up their own rules, with states like Texas, Missouri, New York and Oklahoma enacting very favorable laws for their state institutions. Others, like Kansas, do not have any legislation at all, meaning that pretty much anything goes. And since the NCAA has decided not to create their own rules (partly because of state laws that won't allow them to restrict any NIL activities), the Jayhawks have built a top-notch NIL program.

Everyone remembers the Jared Casey's "Always Go For Two" commercial with Applebee's during the 2021 season after his big 2-point conversion catch. He was recognized in the first annual NIL summit, and shortly after, there were some big developments for Kansas in the NIL space. Then later that summer, the Jayhawks announced some big changes in their NIL program that brought them on par with some of the best programs in the nation. This offseason, Jalon Daniels was named as the 2023 NIL Summit Scholar Athlete of the Year, continuing the trend of Kansas athletes being recognized for their role in NIL.

JD6 🫡 @JalonDaniels6 is your 2023 NIL Summit Scholar Athlete of the Year ‼️#RockChalk | #NILSummit pic.twitter.com/xaH6yXo7gs

— Kansas Football (@KU_Football) June 4, 2023

And we haven't even mentioned the great work that the Jayhawks have done in their other sports, especially men's basketball. It's clear that Kansas cares about NIL and making it accessible for all of their athletes. Looking at the situation from Lawrence, it isn't immediately clear why a federal NIL standard is necessary.

Given the number of competing options for NIL legislation, it seems unlikely that anything will get passed in this session of Congress. And that means that at least for now, there won't be any significant changes nationwide. However, the NCAA will continue to push for a federal standard, and at some point we will have a national model for what NIL programs should look like. Let's hope it is close to what we are already seeing in Lawrence.

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