The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released a memo January 16, clarifying how Title IX applies to name, image, and likeness (NIL) payments directly from schools. This guidance could disrupt plans for how colleges distribute millions of dollars to student athletes. [ESPN]
Driving the news: The memo states that NIL compensation paid directly by schools must be considered “athletic financial assistance” under Title IX, requiring equitable distribution between male and female athletes. This means schools cannot prioritize payments to revenue-generating sports like football and men’s basketball without risking non-compliance. [The Associated Press]
- Under the NCAA’s pending antitrust settlement, schools are preparing to share up to $20.5 million annually with student athletes. Some athletic directors have already announced plans to allocate the majority of this revenue to football players, raising Title IX concerns.
The details: The guidance outlined several key components of Title IX compliance in the NIL context:
- Schools must provide proportional financial assistance to male and female athletes based on their participation numbers.
- Publicity efforts, such as social media posts and promotional materials, must equally feature men’s and women’s teams to avoid disadvantageing female athletes in securing NIL deals.
What’s unclear: The memo does not explicitly address NIL deals between athletes and third-party collectives, though it cautions that such agreements could trigger Title IX obligations if they create inequities in athletic programs. This omission leaves open questions about how external funding sources interact with Title IX.
The reaction: The guidance sparked immediate concerns among athletic directors and higher education leaders, many of whom were meeting at the NCAA’s annual convention when the memo was released.
- Josh Whitman, athletics director at the University of Illinois and chair of the NCAA Division I Council, told Sports Illustrated, “We need time to read it, digest it, and understand it. This whole thing has been an exercise for us in contingency planning. The world has changed over and over again just in the last six months.”