Last week, my colleague Kyle J. Scandore wrote about potential issues with Jaden Rashada requesting to be released from his letter of intent with the University of Florida as a result of his name, image and likeness (NIL) deal with Gator Collective being terminated, specifically the NCAA's "Pay for Play Prohibition."
The State of Florida was one of the first states to pass legislation that allowed for student-athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness. Florida's bill went into effect on July 1, 2021. However the legislation has been more restrictive than other states that chose to delay passing NIL legislation. For example, under Florida's current legislation, student-athletes can only receive compensation through third-party entities, such as "collectives," that are unaffiliated with the school, whereas in other states, schools can offer other services to its student-athletes, such as contract review, tax preparation, and financial planning. Earlier this month, a south Florida lawmaker proposed a new bill – HB 99 – that would expand Florida's NIL legislation and allow for the college to have more involvement in the NIL process with the student-athlete to try to make Florida competitive with other states. As a result of HB 99, Florida colleges would be able to help facilitate transactions between student-athletes and third parties and allow for the college to offer contract review, tax preparation, and financial planning services to its student-athletes.
HB 99 was not put forward as a result of the Jaden Rashada matter, it appears the bill would help mitigate some of the issues that arose during the negotiation of his name, image and likeness deal with the Gator Collective. While Florida was not the first state to amend its NIL legislation, this is another example of the ever changing landscape.
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