The House Judiciary Committee is hosting a roundtable on name, image, and likeness issues in college athletics in mid-April, according to a person familiar with the planning.
Lawmakers have been mulling federal legislation to regulate college athletes’ ability to profit off their personal brand for years. In 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that the existing National Collegiate Athletic Association restrictions on compensation amounted to antitrust violations, paving the way for paying college athletes with haphazard government regulations.
The NCAA, now led by former Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby Washington in recent years, as Congress considered some federal guardrails for the emerging and competitive business around paying college athletes. Currently, each state can craft their own rules, complicating the landscape.
Participants in the House Judiciary roundtable have not been confirmed. A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee will also hold a hearing on NIL issues in college athletics on March 4.
