WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Chairman Roger Williams (R-TX) led a full Committee on Small Business hearing titled “Athletes and Innovators: Examining NIL’s Impact on Entrepreneurial College Athletes.” Chairman Williams issued the following statement after today’s hearing.

“The NIL changes have drastically affected collegiate athletics,” said Chairman Williams. “This policy has allowed entrepreneurial college athletes to look for brand deals, negotiate contracts, and navigate a web of regulations as they look to maximize their time in college. These valuable experiences will stick with them for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, today we also heard a few of the ways the current system is failing some young men and women. I look forward to engaging with stakeholders to find the appropriate solution that would allow certainty for athletes and their respective universities so all parties will be able to thrive.”

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Watch the full hearing here.

Below are some key excerpts from today’s hearing:

Chairman Williams: “There's been a lot of concern about the patchwork regulatory framework that student athletes need to navigate in order to play by the new rules. In addition to the NCAA policy, students have to abide by state law, as well as rules set by their school and their conference. Some have asked for a federal solution to this problem in order to simplify compliance. Now, while I agree that a uniform standard would provide certainty so that everyone is playing by the same rules, finding that appropriate solution is a difficult task. So my question is, what do you think the role of the federal government should have in the NIL space, if any?” Mr. Donati: “Well, I would say would be to work with the NCAA. I don't think any of our any of my colleagues or I expect the federal government to supplant the NCAA. But the nature of NIL, the complexities that come with it and you mentioned the patchwork state laws have made this unmanageable. And so my colleague, Mr. Smith, and I believe the federal government can be involved in a number of ways. You've mentioned the agent issue. I think that's a that's an easy one to address. I think there's a need for a national clearinghouse or transparency into these deals that I think the federal government can be involved with. And then the big question regarding instability is how you enforce these rules. And I think that the federal government could play a major part there as well.”

Rep. Van Duyne: “…how difficult will smaller schools be able to stay competitive when the larger schools can afford to pay athletes more? And I'm not quite sure which of you would like to answer that question, but how, how are some of the smaller schools going to be able to compete with a school that can raise $250 million like that and know that they're going to be able to do that?” Mr. Donati “Well, I'll take that. Well, that's not new, right? I mean, the Ohio State University has always been one of the largest state institutions in our country. And so, schools have found other ways to compete. I think what's different here is the amount of money that's going unchecked into the NIL world, into the NIL business…” Mr. Smith: “…One of the challenges using your words. If the institutions had this model and they were paying the money, then the challenges will be at those smaller schools. How do they afford to do it? Even at their level, regardless of where we are. You know, if you’re looking at the Mid-American Conference and I know my colleagues here from the Mid-American Conference, you look at the Mid-American Conference, those presidents will have to make a decision on whether or not they continue to fund athletics at the level that they have been funding them because majority of their money for those athletic programs comes from the general funds. Students on the campuses will have to decide whether they want to continue to pay student fees to support athletics, because now you're paying the athletes that I go to school with. So, there's a lot of dynamics at that level that will come into play if we end up there.”

Rep. Ellzey: “But what do you think should be done system wide to ensure that these young men and women who may not have any background or guidance from home or direction in their lives, how to manage that money and how to prepare themselves for the future for the two year football player who suddenly doesn't have a degree or much of one and no ability to make a living after that. So they monetized their college years, but then they're out on the street and then they're doing construction later on. We see it all the time in the pros. How are we going to do that with these, you know, college students?” Mr. Torretta: “Well, I think we read about it in professional baseball, basketball, football, all kinds of issues like you're talking about of where a player has made significant amounts of money and they weren't wise with it, or they were taking advantage of. And I think that it's happening now, too, like you said, a 17- to 21-year-old kid, and you can try to educate as much as possible. But like Gene said, you may have somebody that is close to you and maybe a family member, but you know, when money is involved, some decisions are made not in your best interests. And you try to protect and educate as best you can, but you're not going to, you're not going to have that 100% of the cases that we're going to get rid of the bad actors, even with registration, NFL has registration with financial advisors and players agents, and there are still issues with people that are registered.”

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