On August 1, 2024, the NCAA’s new Bylaw 22 went into effect. With this change, the NCAA has adopted new bylaws for the upcoming academic year. Notably, the new bylaws change legislation regarding name, image, and likeness (NIL). The new bylaws supersede the NCAA’s Interim NIL Policy and subsequent guidance that was put in place in July of 2021, and updated periodically thereafter. The new bylaws provide more clarity and direction–and perhaps finality–on several NIL-related issues, including the level of institutional involvement that is permitted.
What is Staying the Same
The new NCAA bylaws still permit student-athletes to earn compensation for their name, image, and likeness. Likewise, they continue to prevent institutions from compensating student-athletes directly—although this is likely to change during the 2025-26 academic year, after the House case has been settled. State NIL laws still remain a patchwork, and no federal NIL legislation has been put in place, despite the NCAA and others calling for uniformity.
For example, the Virginia state legislature has modified their state NIL legislation to allow institutions to pay student-athletes for the use of their NIL directly, which is inconsistent with current NCAA legislation. At the moment, it remains unclear how the NCAA bylaws that prohibit institutional compensation and conflicting state laws will interact, especially given the NCAA’s recent losses in court for antitrust violations.
Key Changes in the New NCAA NIL Legislation
Institutional Involvement
Notably, the new NIL bylaws permit certain institutional involvement, allowing institutions to provide assistance and services such as identifying NIL opportunities and facilitating deals between student-athletes and third parties, provided that the student-athlete does not receive direct compensation from the institution for the use of the student-athlete’s NIL. This new bylaw is a change of direction from the Interim Policy, which prohibited athletic department staff and those acting on behalf of the department from representing student-athletes in NIL deals.
Disclosure Requirements
The new Bylaws also changed the requirements that were adopted in early 2024 (but would not have gone into effect until August) that required students to disclose all NIL activities or risk ineligibility. Now, NIL activity disclosure is voluntary, but with a catch. Students who wish to have NIL assistance and services from their institution must disclose all NIL activities and engagements of $600 or more in value. The new bylaws lay out the required disclosure information in section 22.2.3.1, which includes disclosure of names and contact information of involved parties, a description of the nature of the relationship between such individuals, terms of the deal, and disclosure within 30 days of entering into the agreement.
These new bylaws incentivize student-athletes to disclose NIL activity, but do not mandate it, granting more flexibility and autonomy to student-athletes. Simultaneously, universities and institutions are now permitted to be more involved with student-athletes on the NIL front, now able to advise and assist their athletes on name, image, and likeness opportunities. The new NCAA Bylaws are a step in the right direction, providing clarity and guidance on some of the stress points on NIL. However, others remain, such as the conflicting state legislation in Virginia. The NCAA is anticipated to release another NIL Q&A (the last published in June of last year) which may provide some additional clarity in the near future. For now, the new NCAA Bylaws adopted for the coming academic year are a step in the right direction for the NCAA to better align itself with the current market realities of college athletics.
