Ohio's NIL Executive Order, Senator Tuberville Speaks on NIL Contract Legislation + ICYMI | Newsletter #290

Nov 21, 2024

Today’s Thursday newsletter includes highlights from this week, important news from last week, and what to watch for.

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Recapping Major News This Week:

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed an executive order this week that allows colleges in the state to directly pay student-athletes for their name, image and likeness.
Athletes currently earn revenue from their NIL, but it comes from third-parties like sponsors and collectives. This executive order, which goes into effect immediately, allows schools in Ohio to directly compensate their athletes for their NIL.
Per the executive order, compensation cannot come from funds provided by the state of Ohio. The executive order is set to expire when the House settlement comes into “full operational effect.”
CLICK HERE to learn more.

Alabama Senator and former college football coach Tommy Tuberville spoke about the state of NIL and potentially securing legislation from Congress on Monday.
Senator Tuberville has stated that he is not against athletes making money, but he is calling for changes to help regulate the college athletics landscape.
“I’m not against players making money, but we got to have some kind of penalty for players breaking contracts. So it’s got to go both ways … So we’ll continue to look at it once we get a new administration in. My thoughts are, you know, you sign a contract on NIL, I mean you can’t just up and break it. If you break it, there’s gotta be some kind of penalty. We’ll have to go through all the rules and regulations when it comes to the commerce committee on this.”
Many in the sporting world are eager to get NIL legislation passed during the next presidential administration, believing the current system is broken.
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LSU wide receiver Aaron Anderson signs an exclusive trading card deal with Leaf - LINK
Paige Bueckers announces NIL partnership with Panini America for Autograph Trading Cards - LINK
ASU running back Cam Skattebo announces collaboration with a local restaurant for the “Skatteburger,” where a percentage of sales will go towards the Phoenix Children’s Hospital - LINK
The Cavinder Twins announce partnership with sports nutrition brand GHOST - LINK

Jury Selection for the trial between Penn State and the online retailer, Vintage Brand, began Tuesday in a Pennsylvania federal district court.
In 2021, Penn State sued Vintage for selling “counterfeit Penn State-branding clothing and accessories” without the school’s permission, and they accused the company of blatantly using schools’ trademarks without permission to generate sales - the online retailer sells throwback T-shirts, hats, tees, socks, mugs, and other products associated with sports teams.
Michael McCann highlights the significance of this case in his article for Sportico where he states that “at stake [in the Penn State v. Vintage case] is whether teams’ imagery can be used without consent to create unlicensed products. But also at play is whether teams can exclude others from using historical memorabilia that, as relics of history, are already in the public domain.”
Purdue, Arizona, Arizona State, Cal Berkeley, UCLA, Colorado, Oregon, Oregon State, USC, Stanford, Utah, Washington and Washington State have also filed similar suits against Vintage.
CLICK HERE to learn more.

Mississippi College renaming itself Mississippi Christian University next year is not the only big change at the DII university. On Monday, the school announced that this football season would be the last, citing NIL as the catalyst for the decision. Those committed to play there as well as coaches and administrative staff are left figuring out what to do next.
College President Blake Thompson as well as the administration and board of trustees are all in agreement about one thing: Mississippi College, under any name, will not pay its athletes.
“We have played against any number of teams already with NIL student-athletes,” Thompson said. “Intercollegiate athletics, especially football, is about to undergo transformational change, changes like we’ve never seen before. We just made a strategic decision that it was in our best interests as an institution to focus on things we could do really well. We made the decision that we couldn’t do really well in football anymore.”
Dr. Dylan McLenore, associate professor of sports media at Oklahoma State University and a Mississippi College graduate, says the university won’t be the last program to fall due to the new uncertainty regarding the instability of athletic conferences as well as expanded DI rosters.

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