Trump administration says Title IX doesn’t apply to future NIL payments from universities

The GIST: In more distressing off-court news, on Wednesday, the newly-gutted Department of Education (DoE) rolled back the Biden administration’s guidelines stating that Title IX regulations apply to name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals between universities and athletes.

• So what does that really mean? Women athletes stand to gain far less from the upcoming changes stemming from the House v. NCAA settlement.

The background: Title IX requires college athletic departments to equitably allocate resources to male and female athletes — for instance, if a student body is 50% women, then 50% of scholarship dollars must go to women athletes. Although the law is far from perfect (see: enforcement issues and a convoluted scholarship system), it created opportunities for thousands of women to compete.

• As for the aforementioned House settlement, universities will soon be able to share up to $20M of revenue directly with athletes via NIL deals. But it doesn’t say whether that revenue must be divided equitably between men and women — that’s open to the DoE’s interpretation.

The latest: The Trump administration’s DoE said that Title IX does not bind NIL agreements between athletic departments and athletes, so schools can funnel more NIL money to the players that bring in the most revenue (football and men’s basketball players). That means women athletes could largely be left out of the windfall that many consider restitution for years of unfair labor practices.

• Universities still have the final say in how they’ll distribute revenue once the House payments begin this summer. This latest news simply means they won’t be required by law to give a dime of NIL money to women athletes — unless Title IX attorneys have their way.