U.S. Senators Tommy Tuberville and Joe Manchin asked athletic collectives across the country to provide input to the Senators’ ongoing work to write a bipartisan name, image, and likeness (NIL) legislation that would be guided by stakeholder input and significant engagement with affected groups. The Senators have previously solicited feedback from a broad range of stakeholders, including university athletic directors, administrators, associations, and student-athlete groups.
The new NIL collectives, though legally independent from the institutions they support, are entities designed to pool funds from private donors to maximize NIL’s impact on the recruitment and retention of college athletes for that institution of higher learning.
Manchin and Tuberville are attempting to guide discussions on a legislative path forward addressing the NIL situation across the country. The Senators promise to combine the feedback received from collectives with the information already submitted by dozens of other leaders and groups.
“Last month, our Senate offices solicited input and feedback from a broad range of interested stakeholders on priorities for potential federal NIL legislation,” the Senators wrote. “The response to our solicitation was robust, and we appreciate the respondents’ thoughtful submissions. Notably, more than seventy percent of the commenters recommended that any future legislation address the issue of whether and how to regulate, control, or ban collectives,”
“In our August letter, we set forth our priorities for a legislative solution: to protect student-athletes, ensure fair competition and compensation, and preserve the time-honored traditions of college sports,” the Senators continued. “We welcome your input as to how your organization advances these goals and how any potential legislation could provide a regulatory structure for your organization.”
For over a hundred years, it was illegal for coaches or boosters to give inducements to student-athletes to get them to go to a school or stay at a school and play sports for them. That all changed in 2021 when the NCAA passed a new rule allowing athletes to be compensated for the use of their name, image, and likeness.
Now there are concerns by some that this has gone too far and that there needs to be some regulatory structure in place.
“I don’t think NIL in its original form or what people wanted it to be is really an issue at all,” University of Alabama head football Coach Nick Saban said over the summer. “I think collectives are the issue, and I think one of the solutions would be if you have people that are representatives of your school that give money to a collective, then the collectives turns around and gives it to players on the team. Money.”
“I’m not saying opportunities to represent. I’m saying money,” Saban said. “Then that collective should become a representative of the institution, right? And they should not be able to give money to a player just like an alumnus can’t give money to a player.”
Both the University of Alabama and Auburn University have formed their own collectives.
Hight Tide Traditions allows fans to donate to a fund that will make sure that Alabama players are compensated for their talents.
According to their mission statement, “High Tide Traditions was established to harness the power of Name, Image, and Likeness with student-athletes to make and propel positive business relationships across the city, state, region, and nation. Through strategic partnerships utilizing data analytics, it is important to High Tide Traditions that student-athletes will be engaged in amplifying the exposure for our business partners through relatable and authentic content, appearances, and other mutually beneficial services.”
On to Victory is the Auburn NIL collective.
According to their website, “ON TO VICTORY exists solely to benefit Auburn student-athletes. Its directors will never receive compensation or profit from the collective. ON TO VICTORY is committed to efficient fiscal operations and rigorous compliance with all NIL regulations.”
UAB has also started an NIL collective for its men’s basketball and football programs.
Individual athletes, shoe companies, restaurants, car dealers, other businesses, etc. are legally allowed to pursue NIL deals within or outside of the collectives.
Sen. Tuberville is a former Auburn University head football coach.
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