A discussion draft of a bill that would establish a federal regulatory NIL body was revealed Tuesday by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Florida) exclusively to CBS Sports.
The Fairness Accountability and Integrity in Representation of College Sports Act (FAIR College Sports Act) would preempt all existing and future state NIL laws, a limitation currently being sought for Congress to address by the NCAA.
Bilirakis is a member of the House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee. In that role, he is chairman of the Subcommittee on Innovation, Data and Commerce, which has already conducted two NIL hearings.
A discussion draft is considered the next public step in the legislative process.
Beyond creating a federal regulatory body to address NIL, the suggested legislation would:
Protect athletes’ rights to earn NIL compensation and sign with agents. (The NCAA allows for a limited scope of NIL benefits and currently allows athletes to have agents for NIL marketing purposes only.)Ban “pay-for-play” by prohibiting boosters, collectives and other third parties from “offering inducements to attend or transfer” to specific institutions.Require registration within 30 days for agents, boosters and collectives when NIL deals are signed.
Legislation would not address health and medical benefits for athletes — as contained in other proposed Congressional bills — nor would it address athletes’ potential employee status nor establish liability protections for schools or the NCAA itself. House sources say such protections would be out of the body’s jurisdiction at the moment.
NCAA president Charlie Baker has been seeking a limited protections for the association to control NIL deals.
The regulatory body, if established, would be named the U.S. Intercollegiate Athletics Commission (USIAC) and charged with overseeing NIL, including setting rules, enforcing those rules and providing guidance to athletes…
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