Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03), a former Division I volleyball player, and Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) reintroduced legislation that would establish an unrestricted federal right for college athletes to market their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL).

Two years after the NCAA was forced to adopt a policy that allows athletes to pursue NIL opportunities, the College Athlete Economic Freedom Act includes new provisions to allow international college athletes to market their NIL without losing their visa status, encourage negotiation between athletes and their colleges for the use of athletes’ NIL for promotion and media rights deals, and ensure colleges and collectives do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, or participating sports in the facilitation of NIL deals.

“The system of college sports is better for athletes today than it was two years ago,” said Congresswoman Trahan, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee that oversees college athletics policy. “Rather than trying to turn back the clock, the College Athlete Economic Freedom Act addresses real issues in the current NIL landscape by strengthening athletes’ rights, addressing gender disparities in collectives, and closing the international athlete loophole. Congress should look forward – not backwards – for policy solutions that prioritize athletes who have long been denied a voice in a billion-dollar industry built on their talent and hard work.”

“Giving college athletes the ability to make money off their name, image, and likeness was long overdue, and the past two years have transformed college sports for the better. The NCAA spent decades arguing against athletes’ right to their own NIL, so it should come as no surprise that colleges and athletic associations are now focused on how to take back control, hoping Congress will do it for them. This legislation would enshrine unrestricted NIL rights into federal law and ensure athletes are treated fairly and start getting their fair share,” said Senator Murphy, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Specifically, the College Athlete Economic Freedom Act would:

• Establish an unrestricted federal right for college athletes and prospective college athletes to market the use of their name, image, and likeness – individually and as a group – by prohibiting colleges, conferences, and the NCAA from setting or enforcing rules that restrict this right or otherwise colluding to limit how athletes can use their NIL.
• Protect athletes' ability to retain representation as they see fit, including lawyers, agents, and collective representatives (i.e., players associations) while prohibiting the NCAA or conferences from regulating athlete representation.
• Ensure colleges and affiliated NIL collectives do not discriminate by gender, race, or sport in the facilitation of NIL deals along with requiring collectives to register with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and report the NIL deals they have facilitated so athletes and stakeholders asserting discrimination have all the information they need to address it.
• Ensure equitable opportunities for college athletes to market their NIL by asserting that institutional support by colleges, conferences, or the NCAA for NIL opportunities is made available to all college athletes, along with commissioning a market analysis of NIL monetization with recommendations for improving opportunities across race, gender, and sport.
• Allow international college athletes to market their NIL in the same ways their non-immigrant peers can without losing their F-1 visa status, including in the case that athletes become employees of their schools and/or athletic associations.
• Require colleges and athletic associations to obtain a group license from athletes for using their NIL for any type of promotion, including via a media rights deal, and notify athletes of how their NIL was used along with how much revenue those deals generated, helping athletes negotiate with colleges, conferences, and the NCAA for their fair share of the revenues they produce.
• Assert robust enforcement for violations by colleges, conferences, or the NCAA in restricting athletes' NIL rights, notably through asserting per se antitrust penalties, a private right of action for athletes to pursue civil action against violators, and authorizing the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to levy “unfair or deceptive practice” penalties.

Trahan and Murphy previously introduced the College Athlete Economic Freedom Act in February 2021, months before the Supreme Court’s unanimous National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston decision and the NCAA’s subsequent interim NIL policy. The lawmakers also introduced the Fair Play for Women Act, bicameral legislation that will close Title IX loopholes colleges use to overcount women athletes. Trahan received an athletic scholarship to play Division I volleyball at Georgetown University where she became the first in her family to graduate from college.

Full text of the bill is available HERE.

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