Title IX Turnover: Trump Administration Reverses Play on Revenue-Sharing Agreements
By Noah Dunaway; Photo Credits: IMAGN
On February 12, 2025, the Department of Education rescinded a guidance document (“Ensuring Equal Opportunity Based on Sex in School Athletic Programs in the Context of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) Activities”) published by the Biden Administration in its final days. The Trump Administration’s press release accused the guidance of being “overly burdensome, profoundly unfair,” and “[w]ithout a credible legal justification.”[1]
In order to understand the gravity of the NIL guidance and its rescission, one first must understand Title IX and NIL revenue-sharing agreements. Title IX, as interpreted by the Department of Education, requires universities receiving federal funding to provide “athletic financial assistance” to student-athletes in proportion to the participation rates of men and women in intercollegiate athletics.[2] This has traditionally been interpreted to apply to athletic scholarships and grants.[3]
Meanwhile, since the NCAA allowed student-athletes to monetize their NIL rights, the total revenues in NIL deals have skyrocketed and are expected to total $1.67 billion in 2024-2025.[4] As part of a preliminary settlement in the industry-changing antitrust litigation around collegiate athletics, House v. NCAA, universities would be allowed to opt into revenue-sharing agreements with student-athletes.[5] Under this plan, schools would be allowed to pay student athletes up to 22% of annual revenue or $20.5 million for the Power 4 Conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC).[6] This will allow universities to pay student-athletes directly, a remarkable shift from the current model where NIL deals are signed between student-athletes and third parties.
The Biden Administration’s NIL guidance was relatively limited in its scope, leaving undisturbed the $1.67 billion industry for NIL deals between student-athletes and private parties.[7] Instead, the guidance announced the Department of Education’s interpretation that revenue-sharing agreements—like other payments directly from the university to student-athletes—would be considered “athletic financial assistance,” making them subject to Title IX’s proportionality requirements.[8] Universities feared the impact this would have on their plans to administer the $20.5 million allocated to student-athletes. Texas Tech University, for example, planned to distribute 74% to football and 17-18% to men’s basketball with only 2% going to women’s basketball and smaller amounts going to other women’s athletic programs.[9] If this were subject to a proportionality requirement, the revenues directed to women’s sports would dramatically increase at universities across the country.
With the Trump administration rescinding the guidance, it is likely that the applicability of Title IX to revenue-sharing agreements will remain unclear for universities until this issue is litigated in the courts.
Noah Dunaway is a 2L at Vanderbilt Law School. He graduated from Columbia University in 2023. After graduating from law school, he plans to focus on administrative law.
[1] U.S. Department of Education Rescinds Biden 11th Hour Guidance on NIL Compensation, U.S. Dep’t of Educ. (Feb. 12, 2025), https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-rescinds-biden-11th-hour-guidance-nil-compensation.
[2] Title IX and Athletic Opportunities in Colleges & Universities, U.S. Dept. of Educ. (Feb. 2023),
https://www.ed.gov/media/document/ocr-higher-ed-athletic-resource-202302pdf-33875.pdf; 34 C.F.R. § 106.37(c) (2025).
[3] 34 C.F.R. § 106.37(c) (2025).
[4] NIL at 3: The Annual Opendorse Report, Opendorse, https://biz.opendorse.com/blog/nil-3-opendorse-report/#:~:text=Since%20July%201%2C%202021%2C%20the,change%20one%20year%20from%20now (last visited Feb. 18, 2025).
[5] Dennis Dodd, In or Out? College Athletics Preparing for Every Conundrum as Revenue Sharing Promises to Reshape Landscape, CBS Sports (Nov. 20, 2024, 1:35 PM), https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/in-or-out-college-athletics-preparing-for-every-conundrum-as-revenue-sharing-promises-to-reshape-landscape/.
[6] Mike McDaniel, Power Conferences Set Initial Revenue Sharing Cap Number for College Sports in 2025, Sports Illustrated (Nov. 1, 2024), https://www.si.com/college/power-conferences-set-initial-revenue-sharing-cap-number-for-college-sports-2025.
[7] See Paula Lavigne & Dan Murphy, Dept. of Education Says Title IX Applies to Payments to Athletes, ESPN (Jan. 16, 2025, 6:32 PM), https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/43443976/dept-education-says-title-ix-applies-payments-athletes.
[8] Id.
[9] Don Williams, Kirby Hocutt Details Texas Tech Athletics Plan for Revenue Sharing, Scholarships, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (Dec. 16, 2024, 4:13 AM), https://www.lubbockonline.com/story/sports/college/red-raiders/2024/12/16/texas-tech-football-kirby-hocutt-details-plan-for-revenue-sharing-era/76962416007/.