New law allows college athletes to be paid
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, July 7, 2021
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BATON ROUGE – With Governor John Bel Edwards’ approval of SB 60 by Senator Pat Connick, college athletes in Louisiana may be paid and obtain professional representation. The law allows compensation of intercollegiate athletes for the use of their name, image or likeness (NIL). But before athletes can receive money, athlete agents wishing to represent them must register with Attorney General Jeff Landry’s Office.
“The law requires folks wanting to provide professional representation for intercollegiate athletes to register with my office,” said Attorney General Landry. “If you are interested in providing an intercollegiate athlete with professional representation related to the use of his or her name, image or likeness – you can complete the Athlete Agent Registration form readily available on our website.”
Under Senator Connick’s bill, compensation received must be commensurate with market value (and not marked up as a recruiting tool). Such compensation will not affect aid grants, scholarships, eligibility, etc. Athletes may use the educational institution’s facilities, uniforms, logos, etc. only with express permission of the institution.
Additionally, the legislation states that postsecondary education institutions themselves are not to provide or direct NIL compensation and university boosters may not create or facilitate NIL compensation opportunities. Among other stipulations like not applying to tobacco, alcohol, gambling – it also mandates that contracts for athletes under 18 must be executed by their parents or legal guardians.
Louisiana is now one of 20 states to pass NIL laws. A copy of the Athlete Agent Registration form may be found at agjefflandry.com/Files/Article/10/Documents/AthleteAgentForm.pdf.