Can Congress fix NIL ‘dysfunction’ as NCAA president urges?

The president of the NCAA, Charlie Baker, made a long-winded plea on X on Friday, urging the U.S. Congress “to create national NIL guidelines” in order to “protect student-athletes from exploitation.”

“We continue to see evidence of dysfunction in today’s NIL environment, including examples of promises made but not kept to student-athletes,” he wrote. “Just as anyone that owns stock or buys a house is afforded basic consumer protections, it’s clear that student-athletes entering NIL contracts should be too.”

Baker’s comments come in the wake of UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka’s sudden departure from the football program after he alleged an assistant coach did not follow through on $100,000 promised to him.

Name, image and likeness (NIL) payments are now allowed in college athletics and have become predominant in football and basketball. The NCAA settled several anti-trust lawsuits in May that open the door to schools paying student-athletes directly (once the settlement is approved by a federal judge).

However, as Baker notes in his post, the NCAA does not “have the authority to mandate” student-athletes or institutions to utilize resources from its NIL Assist platform, a program aimed at providing “template contracts” and “recommended, fair terms” for business agreements.

What would federal NIL legislation even look like?

It’s difficult to predict what kind of regulations would appear in federal NIL legislation but it’s clear the college athletics landscape is in dire need of enforceable guidelines.

If student-athletes are going to be paid like employees then some form of current federal labor laws are going to need to be applicable — especially with alumni suing institutions over alleged missing back pay.

Legendary former Alabama head coach Nick Saban made some sensible points on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Friday, providing a potential starting point for any sort of NIL regulations.