Amid the latest spending frenzy for top college football talent, a Northern Virginia legislator is calling for a study to determine how Virginia could bring transparency to student-athlete endorsement deals.
The bill’s sponsor, Del. JJ Singh, D-Loudoun County, said that as a University of Virginia grad and a big Wahoo fan, he sees the benefits of name, image and likeness deals that give players a slice of the multimillion-dollar market for college sports.
But Singh said the current NIL system has sown “confusion and instability.”
“My bill simply creates a work group to help increase transparency and socialize best practices for all stakeholders,” he said in a statement texted to Cardinal News.
The legislation comes as Virginia’s state universities have resisted calls to be more forthcoming how they are complying with new compensation rules, which took effect last July, that allow schools also to pay athletes directly.
State universities have denied efforts by Cardinal News to obtain documents related to how public funds and student fees are shared with athletes. The schools say a “scholastic records” exemption in the state’s Freedom of Information Act allows them to withhold any record revenue-sharing agreements — even if names and other personal identifiable information are redacted.
This year, Virginia Tech said it plans to share $20.5 million with student athletes, the maximum allowed. A Tech spokesman said the school will share $13.4 million with football players, $3.1 million with the men’s basketball team and $2 million spread across all other teams.
The school’s unwillingness to provide more detailed information has led a sportswriter — acting without an attorney — to challenge Virginia Commonwealth University’s denial of a FOIA request. A hearing in the case is set for Jan. 27 in Richmond Circuit Court.
Since 2021, Virginia law has made it legal for college students to profit from the visibility and fame tied to their participation in athletics. Athletes can receive payment for the commercial use of their name, image and likeness.
Last summer, the settlement of a major lawsuit over athletic compensation was widely expected to bring some order and transparency to the anything-goes NIL market.
Under the settlement, colleges had to disclose any NIL deal valued at $600 or more to a newly formed clearing house, which would determine if the deal was valid. There was an expectation that this new College Sports Commission would release a list of deals to provide a better understanding of the marketplace.
So far, however, those expectations have fallen short.
The CSC has not made public the details of any NIL deal. And last week the CSC put schools on notice that some of the six-figure deals reportedly offered to football players in the just-completed transfer portal period appear to have side-stepped rules established in the legal settlement.
The CSC said its concerns focused on NIL deals that are contingent on third-party payments could leave “student-athletes vulnerable to deals not being cleared, promises not being able to be kept, and eligibility being placed at risk.”
Many die-hard fans probably aren’t too concerned about who gets paid what or where the money comes from, as long as their school can compete at a high level.
But the leader of a Virginia group advocating for open records laws says greater NIL transparency is needed to account for spending of public funds and student fees — and protect the interests of student-athletes.
“As NIL money grows, transparency matters more than ever,” said Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, a group advocating for open records laws.
Rhyne said that Singh’s study proposal could lead to solutions that both “protect student athletes and strengthen public trust in our universities.”
Spokesmen for the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech both declined to comment about Singh’s legislation.
“It’s our practice to not comment on proposed legislation,” said Virginia Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski.
Emails to the major NIL outlets at the two schools on Friday were not answered by the time this story was posted online.
HB 1099 would task the State Council on Higher Education to convene a study group to “evaluate best practices for increasing transparency” in NIL deals. The results of the study would be presented to the General Assembly by Nov. 1.