Senate Approves Martin’s Resolution Urging Fairness, Uniformity in Student Athlete NIL Deals

HARRISBURG - The Senate of Pennsylvania today urged the U.S. Congress and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to create a standard set of Name Image Likeness (NIL) policies across all states and universities to better protect student athletes.

The Senate adopted a resolution today authored by Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Scott Martin (R-Lancaster) calling for Congress and the NCAA to work collaboratively to ensure NIL policies nationwide have uniformity, fairness, transparency and oversight.

NIL deals allow student athletes to make money by selling rights to use their name, image and likeness. These contracts were prohibited by the NCAA until a 2021 U.S. Supreme Court ruling (NCAA v. Alston) reversed the NCAA's restriction.

Since the court ruling, the NCAA deferred regulation of NIL deals to the states. In states without an NIL, these decisions were deferred to the individual schools.

Martin, who also chairs the Pennsylvania Athletic Oversight Committee, said this decision has created a patchwork of varying regulations without proper safeguards for student athletes.

"Whether it's Congress or the NCAA, if all the states aren't playing by the same rules, we'll continue to have to play whack-a-mole and react to whatever other states do to push the envelope on this issue, in order to maintain 'recruiting competitiveness,'" Martin said. "That definitely isn't an even playing field and is not good for the long-term health of college athletics across this country."

Martin's resolution encourages Congress and NCAA to establish national guidelines with an emphasis on protecting young athletes.

CONTACT: Jason Thompson