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Sen. Jerry Moran says federal college-athlete name, image, likeness law by July 1 unlikely

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said Wednesday that “it will be difficult … if not impossible” for a federal law pertaining to college athletes’ ability to make money from their names, images and likeness to be enacted before July 1, when such laws will take effect in at least six states.

However, in an interview with USA TODAY Sports after meeting with NCAA President Mark Emmert, Moran also said that Emmert’s visit to Washington emphasizes for lawmakers the urgency of the need for action that would prevent a state-by-state approach on name, image and likeness (NIL).

Moran is the author of one of three bills that have been introduced in this Congressional session, and he said he believes his measure offers the best vehicle for Republicans and Democrats to reach a compromise. He is a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the matter.

Tennessee:Gov. Bill Lee signs name, image, likeness bill for college athletes

While he is not optimistic that a bill could be signed into law by July 1, Moran said: “It's become a much more important issue” than it had been a month or two ago, before Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and New Mexico joined Florida and Nebraska in passing laws that could take effect July 1.

“The timeliness of what's happening across the country has now begun to dawn onto my colleagues,” Moran said. “And it's one of the things about Congress: It takes usually some outside force, some event, to get faster action. . . . And if we could reach a conclusion, this is the kind of legislation that could be attached to some other piece of legislation that's already working its way across the Senate floor.”

On Saturday, Emmert reiterated his commitment that before the beginning of the 2021-22 school year, the NCAA will change its NIL rules. Such a move would fundamentally alter a system of amateurism that prevents athletes from participating in endorsement deals, monetizing their social-media followings or getting paid for signing autographs amid an enterprise that generates billions of dollars for their schools. But the NCAA’s proposals would conflict with some provisions of state laws.

And movement by states is occurring almost daily. On Tuesday night, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee made his state the 15th to enact a college-athlete NIL law. That law will take effect Jan. 1, 2022. On Wednesday, the Louisiana state Senate's Finance Committee unanimously sent to the chamber floor a measure that would take effect upon the governor's signature. It still needs House approval, but given Louisiana's legislative deadlines, it could become the first law to take effect before July 1.

Moran's bill not only addresses NIL, it also deals with some of the other issues that have made an NIL bill contentious in Congress. The bill would give the NCAA the legal protection it is seeking from antitrust lawsuits that challenge its athlete-compensation rules. It also would provide some additional benefits to athletes, including post-college health-care coverage and the ability to go through a pro draft and return to school, It would put into law — not just NCAA rules — the ability of athletes to transfer once without having to sit out a year.

But it remains to be seen whether this will seen as an equitable arrangement  by Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and others who have been critical of the NCAA's dealings with athletes. Blumenthal and Booker introduced what they termed an athletes bill of rights in the last Congressional session. Murphy and Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., have introduced a bill in this session that would not give the NCAA the same legal protection that Moran's would.

Moran said he is open to negotiating the specific features of his bill, to a point. 

"No piece of legislation at this point that's going to pass remains identical to what it is today," he said. "But I think that the changes that would could be made to my bill are ones that are modest, are reasonable, are in the vein of what this legislation is, which is something that is designed to be sufficiently appealing to a broad enough group of legislators that it gets passed."

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