(The Center Square) — The Florida House of Representatives has created a working group to study name, image and likeness rights and possibly craft legislation.
College athletes can sign deals which allow them to earn money for the use of their name, image and likeness for advertisements or other media, such as podcasts or radio show appearances.
With other states such as Ohio pondering changes to their NIL laws that could give their college athletics programs an advantage, Florida lawmakers are already considering the next steps to keep pace.
According to a memo released by House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, even though lawmakers have shifted focus to the bills filed for the regular session, they didn’t need to lose sight of “collateral policy conversations that have an impact on our state.”
“The debate over name, image, and likeness policies at the collegiate level raises a number of critical issues: The legal rights of student athletes, the legal responsibilities of our educational institutions, and the impact of those rights and responsibilities on the finances of our public universities,” the memo says.
The working group was chosen by committee chairs and Reps. Jennifer Canady, R-Lakeland, Demi Busatta, R-Coral Gables, and Traci Koster, R-Tampa.
It will have 21 members, with three apiece from the Education & Employment Committee, the Higher Education Budget Subcommittee and the Civil Justice & Claims Subcommittee.
It won’t be the first try at legislating an issue that has altered college athletics nationwide.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 646 into law in 2020 that allowed college athletes in the Sunshine State the ability to receive money from NIL deals and prohibits college athletic departments from preventing athletes from seeking outside representation and making NIL deals.
In 2023, lawmakers passed another bill to revise the NIL law that was signed by DeSantis. The new law removed the distinction between amateur college sports and professional sports, axed the requirement that NIL deals be funded by third parties and not the school itself and lastly erased a requirement that prevented players from entering agreements in conflict with their school’s team contract.
The new NIL law also gave immunity to schools and their employees over damages related to an athlete’s ability to earn NIL deals.
NIL stems from a 2009 lawsuit filed by former UCLA and NBA basketball player Ed O’Bannon over his appearance in a video game without compensation that would’ve been disallowed by the NCAA.
