In less than 24 hours, Texas’s NIL bill will go into effect after Governor Abbott signed on June 14th. Texas Bill 1385 was introduced by Texas State Senator Brandon Creighton. The Texas House of Representatives passed the NIL bill on May 23rd, then the Texas State Senate passed it on May 28th. Here’s a rundown of what the Texas NIL bill consists of, and what we can expect after its enactment:
- Texas schools may not adopt a policy that prevents student athletes from earning compensation for their name, image, or likeness when the student athletes are not engaged in official team activities, or from obtaining representation by agent or attorney for contract or other purposes relating to the athlete’s name, image, and likeness. Compensation does not include academic scholarships or financial assistance from the institution. Student athletes cannot be disqualified from receiving a scholarship, grant, or financial assistance due to earning compensation from their name, image, and likeness.
- The student athletes must attend a financial literacy and life skills workshop at the beginning of their first and third years at the institution.
- Student athletes may not enter into contracts with their name, image, and likeness if any provision of the contract conflicts with the team’s contract, the institution’s honor code, or that consist of selling alcohol, tobacco products, e-cigarettes or any other type of nicotine delivery device, anabolic steroids, casino gambling, a firearm the student athlete cannot legally purchase, or a sexually-oriented business…” Gambling is currently illegal in Texas, including sports betting. However, since sports betting is starting to grow throughout different states, it will be interesting to see if there are changes to Texas’s laws regarding sports betting and if the NIL bill will change in the future to reflect these changes.
- Two of Texas’s largest universities have already launched programs related to NIL, and will likely put them at the forefront for Texas institutions in the competitive arena that NIL bills are going to place on recruiting:
- Texas A&M announced their AMPLIFY program, which according to A&M Director of Athletics, Ross Bjork, “provides Aggie athletes with the right tools and resources so that they are educated, well-informed and can capitalize to their full potential.”
- UT launched the LEVERAGE program in August 2020, and is composed of four main focus areas: Personal Branding and Brand Management, Business Formation and Entrepreneurship, Opportunity Management, and Financial Literacy. According to UT Vice President and Athletic Director Chris Del Conte, LEVERAGE is designed to “help student athletes grow their personal brands.”
Texas is ready to jump head-first into NIL. The new bill will hopefully set Texas universities up for what will likely be a whole new recruitment process, with its two largest public institutions already gearing up with their NIL programs. Student athletes will have more compensation opportunities than ever before, but with this comes the need for financial responsibility and representation that cares about the athletes, themselves.