Trio of U.S. Senators Draft Bipartisan NIL Bill Proposing a Slew of Regulations, Transparency for College Athletes

Aaron M. Sprecher/AP

Three U.S. senators are once again trying their hand at regulating the NCAA’s name, image, and likeness policy — or NIL, Yahoo Sports reported.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) on Thursday released a draft of their proposed legislation. If signed into law, the College Athletes Protection & Compensation Act would establish a new board to oversee NIL policy and provide more transparency for players and universities.

Blumenthal called the draft a “milestone step forward” in a statement to Yahoo Sports, adding that student-athletes “need a level playing field with guarantees of economic opportunities, educational outcomes, and essential health care.”

Additionally, the bill would establish the creation of an NIL database. Schools would be required to submit an annual report of the averages and totals of their deals to that database. Individual contracts with players, however, will not be subject to open-records laws.

Athletes will also play a role in this added transparency. They’ll be required to report their NIL deals to a school within seven days of entering them, and also disclose current and expiring deals to a school before enrolling.

Though the draft has been released, a finalized version has yet to be sent to Congress.

“Being a college athlete was one of the greatest gifts of my life — it opened doors of opportunity and offered lessons I carry with me to this day,” Booker said in a statement. “But it also opened my eyes to some deep, systemic injustices in the system — a system that, to this day, continues to put profits over athletes. This bipartisan proposal represents a major step forward.”

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