Ted Cruz said there is a 50/50 chance of NIL legislation; What would that mean for UT?
Since the advent of NIL in college sports, the case can be made that no teams have benefited more than those of the University of Texas and other Texas universities, like Texas A&M. With the influx of money and agency that players are seeing across the country, there have been calls for regulations on what some have described as a hands-off system with little to no rules.
Now, years after the arrival of NIL, one of the biggest voices advocating for regulation in college sports is Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who spoke about the possibility of regulations at a panel in Washington on Tuesday.
At that panel, Cruz said there was a 50% chance that regulations will be seen and that negotiations are ongoing.
"It's not too late to get it done, but we're getting close to it being too late to get it done. I still think there are elements there of getting bipartisan agreement. We just have not been able to get everyone to the table to sign off."
What would regulations look like?
Concrete regulation was not discussed, but Cruz expressed that he hopes something will get passed that will standardize how athletes can be compensated for their names, images and likenesses.
The idea behind standardization is that it would give the NCAA, and its various conferences, the ability to govern college sports without the looming threat of lawsuits and state laws hindering their ability to enforce regulations.
One possibility, which has been suggested by NCAA president Charlie Baker, is that a new tier of Division I sports be created as a way of requiring certain schools, with more lucrative operations, to pay their athletes.
Baker has expressed that he would like to avoid a situation where college athletes are declared as employees of their universities.
Who else spoke at the panel?
Other than Cruz, the highest profile name on the panel was undoubtedly Nick Saban — former head football coach at Alabama.
“All the things I believed in for all these years. 50 years of coaching, no longer exist in college athletics,” said Saban on how much NIL has changed college sports.
Others present on the panel included Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips, Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne and Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
UT sports have dominated NIL rankings
According to rankings by On3, a website that calculates and ranks athletes' NIL values, at the end of 2023, the Texas Longhorns were dominating individual and team NIL rankings.
Of the schools with players in the top 100, Texas has the second highest value of players on the list as the 10 Longhorns featured had a combined value of approximately $10 million. That number is only topped by USC, which, despite only having five players on the list, boasts huge values from players like Bronny James and 2022 Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams — the first and fifth-ranked players on the list at the time.
Other schools rounding out the top five include LSU, which has this year's Heisman winner and a $9.5 million value; CFP contender Alabama, at $5.9 million in value; and Ohio State, which has five players that have accumulated a $4.3 million value.
Moreover, Texas stars were able to strike lucrative deals as Quinn Ewers signed with 7-Eleven, HEYDUDE shoes and C4 energy. The exact value of these deals isn’t known, but it comfortably makes him one of the best-paid athletes in college sports.
Texas' backup quarterback with a starter's name, Arch Manning, inked a deal with trading card company Panini that landed him $102,500. However, Manning didn’t take a cent of that deal, and instead donated all of that money to the Ronald McDonald House Charities in Austin.
Beck Andrew Salgado covers trending topics in the Austin business ecosystem for the American-Statesman. To share additional tips or insights withSalgado, email Bsalgado@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Ted Cruz encourages NIL legislation as Texas sports teams benefit
