NIL bill passes out of Ohio House Committee, could go the Ohio House for a vote this week

The Ohio House Civil Justice Committee unanimously passed a bill last week that would strengthen the state’s name, image and likeness law. 

House Bill 660 would codify Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s recent executive order permitting colleges and universities to directly compensate student athletes, instead of involving third parties.  

“After looking at other states, especially in the SEC, we should again codify and bolster the Governor’s Executive Order to eliminate red tape, legislative issues, and legal problems so our athletes can succeed,” State Rep. Adam Mathews, R-Lebanon, said in his sponsor testimony.

Mathews and State Rep. Jay Edwards, R-Nelsonville, introduced H.B. 660 in September and it quickly moved through the Civil Justice Committee. The bill now goes to Rules and References, where it could be brought to a vote on the House floor as early as this week. The Ohio House is in session Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Any bill that does not pass when the General Assembly ends later this month will die and would have to be reintroduced in the next General Assembly. 

H.B. 660 would authorize a university to compensate a student-athlete for use of their NIL, allow student-athletes to get professional representation from an agent or attorney and clarifies existing law that a student-athlete is not an employee if they receive compensation for use of their NIL.  

“This bill sends a strong signal that the state of Ohio will continue to be a leader in collegiate athletics – I have spoken to many of my Ohio AD colleagues, and they feel the same way,” Ohio State Athletic Director Ross Bjork said in his proponent testimony. 

Bjork confirmed to media outlets over the summer that Ohio State football players received around $20 million in NIL over the past year. 

Regardless of this legislation, student-athletes are still getting paid. 

“The question is whether we should continue to force our universities to face unnecessary hurdles to ensure this happens fairly and efficiently,” Edwards said in his sponsor testimony. “By streamlining the NIL process, this legislation ensures that universities are not forced to jump through bureaucratic hoops to support the athletes that compete for them so proudly.”

This is not the first executive order DeWine has signed regarding NIL. He signed one in June 2021 that allowed student-athletes to benefit from their own name, image and likeness with endorsements and other deals after the United States Supreme Court ruled the NCAA was not legally allowed to limit any education-related payments to students.  

State Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, recently introduced another NIL bill last month that would prevent a NIL contract with a student-athlete from remaining in effect once the athlete is done playing college athletics. 

House Bill 687 would also ban an athlete’s agent from having a contract representing a student-athlete for NIL deals if the athlete is no longer eligible to play college sports. 

“The effect of this is that college NIL deals contracts would not be able to contain any terms which bind the athlete’s future professional earnings,” Stewart said in his sponsor testimony. “No college contract should bind a student athlete to pay a percentage of their future professionals earnings to college-town boosters.”

The U.S. District Court recently issued a preliminary approval of a settlement agreement that would start giving millions of dollars directly to student-athletes next fall. A final decision is expected on April 7, the same day as the NCAA men’s basketball national championship. 

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