The U.S. Department of Education has rescinded the Title IX guidance put in place by former President Joe Biden during the final days of his Administration.
During Biden’s final days in office, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) issued guidance related to Title IX, stating that revenue-sharing payments from schools to athletes must be proportionately distributed to men and women.
On Wednesday, under the new Trump Administration, the Department of Education announced Biden’s “11th hour guidance” had been rescinded.
“The NIL guidance, rammed through by the Biden Administration in its final days, is overly burdensome, profoundly unfair, and it goes well beyond what agency guidance is intended to achieve,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor.
Trainor said that the Biden Administration claimed that NIL agreements between schools and student-athletes were akin to financial aid and therefore should be proportionately distributed to female and male student-athletes under Title IX.
However, he said that Title IX “says nothing about how revenue-generating athletics programs should allocate compensation among student-athletes.”
“The claim that Title IX forces schools and colleges to distribute student-athlete revenues proportionately based on gender equity considerations is sweeping and would require clear legal authority to support it. That does not exist. Accordingly, the Biden NIL guidance is rescinded.”
With the new policy clarifying that Title IX does not mandate how revenue should be allocated, it opens the door for schools to prioritize revenue-generating sports like football and men’s basketball for compensation.
U.S. Representative Lori Trahan, a former Division I volleyball player at Georgetown, objected to the Trump Administration rescinding the OCR fact sheet.
College sports may change, but schools’ legal obligations under Title IX doesn’t.
If Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress won’t defend women’s sports, the courts will have to. https://t.co/MAZgkonPLl
— Lori Trahan (@RepLoriTrahan) February 12, 2025
“College sports may change, but schools’ legal obligations under Title IX doesn’t,” Trahan said in a statement. “If Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress won’t defend women’s sports, the courts will have to.”
As outlined by Sportico‘s Michael McCann, the counterview is that NIL rights are tied to an athlete’s unique identity, and intellectual property law protects that right by preventing companies from using someone’s identity for profit without their permission. NIL deals depend on an athlete’s marketability, meaning the big stars get lucrative deals and others get nothing. Title IX usually covers standardized benefits for student-athletes like tuition, housing and travel, but applying it to more individualized aspects of an athletes’ identity “could prove beyond its intended scope.”
A Banana Republic, if you can keep it.
I’ve never had a problem with TITLE IX and women’s sports.
However, NIL is a separate deal. Let the athletes who CAN make money, actually MAKE money.
Capitalism is a glorious thing, even in American sports, male and female.
I *think* the middle ground will be to enforce Title IX equality on the School collectives.
The Libertarian in me says why is the federal government involved with NIL? Why is NIL being attached to Title IX? Keep the government out and let it play out at universities. My 2 cents
This is harsh and it’s not directed at you personally –
Is “Libertarianism” not essentially “I am a liberal, but I want to pat myself on the back that my beliefs somehow are unrelated to current governance and societies problems”?
American politics has devolved into meaningless newspeak which all just seems to be ways for people to deflect responsibility and accountability – according to politicians it seems no one (unless it’s politically advantageous to point a finger in a specific direction which usually changes in a single 24 hour news cycle) has been governing this country since Nixon resigned.
Again – not personally attacking you – just reflecting on whatever label you want to give the mess… Read more »
Libertarianism is the belief that while there are legitimate purposes for government, overreach is a major concern and there should be minimal intervention in the lives of the citizens. It’s an oversimplification, but a typical libertarian set of viewpoints would be to agree with classical conservatives (think Milton Friedman, whose takes are different from both modern Democrats and modern Republicans) on regulation of taxes and the business environment and would agree with moderate liberals on social issues. It’s kind of a “live and let live, but maintain enough structure that things don’t devolve into chaos” philosophy.
A solution that would make everyone happy would just be Football, Men’s and Women’s basketball and women’s gymnastics getting the lion’s share of revenue sharing and other sports just simply operating as they always have.
Maybe that’s unrealistic, but the idea of “revenue sharing” for any sports that don’t generate revenue seems a little bit ridiculous.
This is why I keep saying that the only thing that will solve the problem is congressional intervention.
The law doesn’t contemplate which employees make money and which ones don’t, for obvious reasons. You don’t get to pay your HR & payroll folks below minimum wage because business development brings in all the revenue.
There will always be a lawyer who will be able to push the “all athletes” case in front of the judges to grow the class and increase the fees. You will never be able to completely work that out of the system. So until there’s a carevout in the law, it’s always going to be “all athletes”.
I’d love to hear the opinion of a coach or participant who is outspoken about protecting women’s sports by barring transgender athletes but somehow is ok with this, too
Your ignorance is astounding.
I’m ok with it….
Guess the Congresswoman is upset she wasn’t invited to the White House for the signing last week …
“If Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress won’t defend women’s sports, the courts will have to.”
She does realize the equal part goes both ways, toss out football and most of the NCAA stars are women not men
If we are calling a star anyone that makes at least 250k from NIL (arbitrary number for a healthy amount of money). I genuinely don’t think the amount of women’s stars and men’s stars outside of football combined equals the amount football has.
“Them that’s got shall get. Them that’s not shall lose” ~ Billie Holiday
This issue should be hashed out in court and not through executive fiat.
Women’s sports have never been promoted or supported to the same extent as men’s sports so how could revenue be a fair litmus? Olympic sports have never been supported to the same extent either.
NIL will never be as simple as athletes getting paid and this is a case that needs to be explored, dissected and litigated.