WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade led a hearing titled Moving the Goalposts: How NIL is Reshaping College Athletics.

“Student athletes have the right to benefit from use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) but the rapid evolution of NIL has created a chaotic and unpredictable system,” said Chairman Bilirakis. “During today’s Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee hearing, we discussed ways to stabilize the NIL environment and ensure the well-being of student athletes while preserving the integrity of college sports. We look forward to advancing this important priority.”

Watch the full hearing here.

Below are key excerpts from today’s hearing:

Representative Jay Obernolte (CA-23): “When I was in college, I played on the Caltech football team. Go Beavers! But then later in my life, I got into video game development, and my company did the development of NCAA College Football for EA Sports in 1998 and 1999. I remember vividly having the argument of ‘why can't we use the student athletes' names in the game?’ They told us that we could use your number. We could use your stats. We could make a player that looked vaguely like you, but not too much like you. And I remember saying, ‘this is completely stupid because everybody loses!’ The student athletes lose because they're not allowed to get compensated. We as game designers lose because we're not allowed to design a game around the athletes as we wanted to. The players of the game lose because they're not allowed to see the players that they love and recognize in the games that they bought. So, we have an opportunity here to create a system where everybody wins. And if we create a system where someone loses, then we’re not doing our jobs right.”

Representative Diana Harshbarger (TN-01): “I got a lot of worries about this NIL. I have two grandsons coming up. They love football, basketball, the whole nine yards. I worry about the number of times they can go through the portal. I worry about the agents and the collectives. Is there standardization? Do they need to have some type of accreditation? I worry about no limit on outside money.”

Representative Tom Kean (NJ-07): “As the landscape of college athletics continues to evolve, NIL has created new opportunities for student athletes, also raising concerns about fairness, recruitment, and the role of higher education in sports. As we consider federal legislation, it is critical that we strike the right balance, ensuring that athletes can benefit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL), preserving the integrity of college athletics and keeping competition fair for all schools, including those in New Jersey.”

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