Runaway NIL in need of regulation

An effort to create economic justice in college athletics quickly has become an instrument to widen the gap between haves and have-nots. Bowing to a series of court rulings and state laws, the NCAA three years ago dropped its prohibition on college athletes making money based on their name, image and likeness, or NIL. Prior to that, the schools, conferences, sponsors and the NCAA itself freely used the athletes’ NIL to make money for themselves.

The NIL era quickly has gotten out of hand. Some athletes make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year; others attend three or four schools in a five-year eligibility window in search of NIL money. The rules prohibit universities from using NIL for recruiting freshmen or upper classmen seeking transfers, but boosters have devised innumerable end runs.

To his credit, NCAA President Charlie Baker, the former governor of Massachusetts, recognizes that the NIL problem is beyond the NCA A’s ability to solve. He asked Congress to devise a uniform national NIL regime to ensure its fairness.

Several representatives and senators of both parties plan to introduce bills with common themes. They include an independent commission to regulate NIL, mandatory reporting by athletes and universities, prohibition of NIL deals involving gambling or certain other businesses, a database to ensure transparency, creation of a fund to cover athletes’ medical expenses, and more.

Congress should follow through to ensure that NIL serves its original purpose of fairness rather than as an instrument to make the rich, richer.