On Wednesday, the Trump administration rescinded a Biden-era memo that would have made colleges responsible for equally distributing name, image and likeness (NIL) payments between men and women under Title IX. Vice President for UP Athletics Scott Leykam said in an email to The Beacon that UP Athletics is evaluating all the recent guidance on collegiate athletics that has come from the federal government.
“Our industry is in a time of unprecedented change, and through it all, our goal remains to provide a high-level student-athlete experience and be competitive at the highest level,” Leykam said.
According to a press release by the U.S. Department of Education, Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said Title IX does not encompass gender equity laws regarding college sports.
“The NIL guidance, rammed through by the Biden Administration in its final days, is overly burdensome, profoundly unfair, and it goes well beyond what agency guidance is intended to achieve,” Trainor said. “Without a credible legal justification, the Biden Administration claimed that NIL agreements between schools and student-athletes are akin to financial aid and must, therefore, be proportionately distributed between male and female athletes under Title IX.
“Enacted over 50 years ago, Title IX says nothing about how revenue-generating athletics programs should allocate compensation among student-athletes. The claim that Title IX forces schools and colleges to distribute student-athlete revenues proportionately based on gender equity considerations is sweeping and would require clear legal authority to support it. That does not exist. Accordingly, the Biden NIL guidance is rescinded.”
Kimberly Cortez is the Editor-in-Chief of The Beacon. They can be reached at cortez25@up.edu.
