# College Athlete Economic Freedom Act: What It Actually Does

Right now, college athletes can't make money from their own names, images, or likenesses—their faces on merchandise, endorsement deals, social media sponsorships, or anything else. This bill would change that by giving college athletes the legal right to profit from themselves, similar to how professional athletes do. It's essentially saying that if a shoe company wants to pay a college basketball player to wear their shoes and promote them on Instagram, that athlete could actually accept the money instead of being banned from playing.

The bill prevents colleges and athletic organizations from stopping athletes from making these deals or from punishing them for hiring agents, lawyers, or financial advisors to help negotiate contracts. It also blocks colleges from secretly working together to keep payments artificially low—a practice called collusion. If a college wants to use a group of athletes' likenesses (like in video games or promotional materials), the athletes would have to be compensated through a licensing agreement. Importantly, making money from endorsements wouldn't affect an athlete's scholarship or eligibility to play, so athletes could have both their scholarship and outside income.

The bill includes protections against discrimination, requiring that any support colleges provide for name and image deals be available equally to all athletes regardless of gender, race, or sport. This addresses concerns that popular male athletes in high-revenue sports like football might get all the opportunities while athletes in women's sports or less popular sports get nothing. The bill also creates a registration system for organizations that help arrange these deals, requiring them to track and report how money is distributed across different groups of athletes to ensure fairness.

For international students on athletic visas, the bill clarifies that earning money from endorsements won't jeopardize their visa status or be considered a violation of their student status. Violations of the law would be treated as unfair business practices, meaning the Federal Trade Commission could investigate and punish violations, and individual athletes could sue for damages if their rights are violated.