Name, image and likeness (NIL): How has monetization of collegiate athletics impacted sports law?
Five years after NIL payments upended college sports, a wave of litigation, regulation, and professionalization is reshaping sports law.
The popularity of US college sports is unmatched globally, generating over $20 billion annually, and producing many of today’s professional stars. Yet until 2021, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) amateurism rules prevented athletes from sharing in this revenue.
Legal challenges followed by state legislation and rule changes, dismantled that model and ushered in the era of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) payments. Five years on, the resulting shift has reshaped collegiate athletics and created a surge of complex legal disputes that continue to redefine the sports law landscape.
"I think there will be more litigation until we have federal legislation."
Senior partner, US law firm
The athletes
With the potential for financial gain reaching greater heights than ever before, sources told Chambers that there has been an emerging trend of student athletes taking legal action to seek temporary restraining orders or preliminary injunctions against the NCAA’s eligibility rules, with 59 cases being filed with various courts since the first in 2024.
"[There has been] so much collateral damage from the House decision and the commission to allow NIL payments, litigation from students trying to get more years of playing time, and breaking NIL contracts. That is a huge area that will only keep blowing up until it gets under control."
Senior partner, US law firm
Revenue, realignment and rebuttals
The changing landscape is not only affecting athletes. As new rules have been applied, educational institutions have adapted by running their athletic departments in a manner more akin to professional outfits, by paying close attention to existing and emerging revenue streams to ensure viability and attractiveness to potential recruits. The pursuit of increased media exposure and sponsorship opportunities has brought about conference realignment.
This was demonstrated in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division 1, which saw Texas and Oklahoma join the SEC, and ten members of the Pac-12 depart the conference. A host of legal challenges followed.
"People are treating the colleges as professional teams now. There is so much going on, and it is certain that the change will continue"
Senior partner, US law firm
Profits, payments and parity
Schools are also feeling pressure, with the financial burden of legal settlements and athlete payments seeing some colleges cut non-revenue generating programs and searching for new income in their quest for national success. Moreover, students’ ability to simply switch allegiance via the NCAA transfer portal, on top of recruitment and transfer valuations often reaching the seven-figure threshold, have resulted in immense financial pressure on all involved.
Another potential consequence includes the impact of educational institutions’ commitments to provide equal opportunities for male and female sports under Title IX. While the current policy from the Department of Education does not tie NIL payments to Title IX, sources note that there is still room for policy changes and legal challenges in the future, creating more questions for the judicial system to answer.
"There is an arms race going on in college sports now due to professionalization, colored by the fact that colleges are all straining to increase their revenue. The arms race also connects to the need for new and renovated facilities - colleges are not just looking at facilities but also surrounding areas as revenue opportunities."
Senior partner, US law firm
Future regulation and questions
Complicating matters, 2024 saw the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) take the unprecedented decision to classify the Dartmouth Men’s Basketball team as employees of the school, paving the way for unionization. While the team’s petition to unionize was ultimately withdrawn at the end of 2024, this decision does show that the end of amateurism in collegiate sports could bring about a world where employment law compliance must also be considered for student athletes.
Equally front of mind for legal experts has been a growing trend of student-athletes being recruited from overseas. In 2025, there were 9,595 international student athletes registered in NCAA Division 1 FBS and FCS, with sources telling Chambers that sports law teams providing advice to colleges and student athletes see the need to diversify their expertise further into immigration law and to advise on the complications of NIL payments made to international recruits.
Federal intervention may provide greater clarity
Federal regulation does seem to be on the horizon. President Trump signed an executive order in 2025 aiming to set a national standard and alleviate the current patchwork of state-level legislation which has so far governed the NIL space and to protect scholarship opportunities for non-revenue generating sports, particularly women’s sports. The order also directed the NLRB to clarify the question of employee status for student athletes. The President has promised another executive order in early 2026 to further address the questions that NIL payments has created in college sports.
2025 also saw the SCORE Act introduced to Congress, aiming to address some of the questions that have arisen from the House settlement and to standardize and protect student athletes’ rights. Key representatives from conferences and colleges alike have been vocal in their requests for greater clarity, but it remains to be seen whether these provisions will come to the fore or have the intended effect of stabilizing the collegiate sports sector. However, the bill is yet to face a full House vote.
Outlook: Payments with consequences
To many observers, the last five years of regulatory turbulence in collegiate sports have demonstrated the same level of drama and action as the on-field product. The end to an over 100-year-old tradition of amateurism in the NCAA was never going to be a simple task, and a plethora of knotty, emerging issues with NIL payments continue to be raised. It is very clear that NIL payments are here to stay, however, and lawyers working with the NCAA, colleges and universities, as well as athletes themselves, will be central to shaping the system as it continues to mature.
New legal practice areas could be brought into the collegiate athletics, and we could be very much at the start of a huge wave of precedent setting decisions in this industry. Legal advisors who are quick to offer proactive and strategic advice, to assist clients in navigating through the gray zones, and those who provide commercial advice on risk management, will see the greatest success in the world of collegiate sports.
Key takeaways
- NIL has permanently ended amateurism in US college sports, triggering a surge in complex and fast‑evolving legal disputes.
- Athletes are increasingly turning to the courts to challenge eligibility rules, contract terms, and limits on compensation.
- Colleges are being forced to operate like professional sports franchises, with heightened legal, financial, and competitive pressures.
- Conference realignment, revenue sharing, and the transfer portal have intensified litigation risk across collegiate athletics.
- Uncertainty around employment status, Title IX, and international athletes is expanding the scope of sports law advice.
Federal regulation may bring clarity, but for now NIL remains a fragmented and litigation‑heavy legal landscape.
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