The (above-board) introduction of name, image, and likeness (NIL) money into college sports has received considerable attention from Congress in recent months. In June, the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act (PCSA),which would replace the current patchwork of state laws on college athletics with a federal framework, advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee. It was the subject of feverish negotiations to pull the remaining Power Four conferences (the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference) on board and pass the bill through the full Senate before the August recess.
The PCSA would regulate college athletes’ agents, restrict athletes’ ability to transfer schoolsmultiple times, and prohibit the largest conferences from combining, among other impactful changes. PCSA sponsors have reportedly prepared further amendments in an attempt to garner the support of the Big Ten and SEC, most notably a new $20 million to $25 million retention fund that schools could use to compensate athletes in addition to the existing $21 million revenue-sharing cap.
But the PCSA is equally notable for not addressing tax simplification or even tax certainty. College athletes are currently being exposed to a multistate tax maze intended for high-profile, highly compensated individuals. Yet most college athletes are anything but: The median NIL deal for a college athlete is about $40, and the median athlete earns about $648 in total over the course of their college career.
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