Quick Hits

• The Department of Education has rescinded recent guidance that had warned NCAA schools that NIL payments could trigger the equal opportunity obligations of Title IX. 
• This announcement indicated that the department interprets Title IX as not applying to how revenue-generating athletics programs allocate compensation among their athletes.

On February 12, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it had rescinded the nine-page Title IX guidance on NIL payments previously issued on January 16, 2025, in the final days of the Biden administration.

“The NIL guidance, rammed through by the Biden Administration in its final days, is overly burdensome, profoundly unfair, and goes well beyond what agency guidance is intended to achieve,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement.“Without a credible legal justification, the Biden Administration claimed that NIL agreements between schools and student athletes are akin to financial aid and must, therefore, be proportionately distributed between male and female athletes under Title IX.”

“Enacted over 50 years ago, Title IX says nothing about how revenue-generating athletics programs should allocate compensation among student athletes,” Assistant Secretary Trainor’s statement continued. “The claim that Title IX forces schools and colleges to distribute student-athlete revenues proportionately based on gender equity considerations is sweeping and would require clear legal authority to support it. That does not exist. Accordingly, the Biden NIL guidance is rescinded.”

The move comes as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and major college sports conferences have agreed to pay nearly $2.8 billion in back pay to former athletes as part of a proposed settlement to end NIL litigation and to establish a revenue-sharing framework to share more than $20 million annually with athletes.

The rescinded Biden-era guidance had warned NCAA schools that NIL compensation provided by a school, even if provided by private third parties, would be considered by the department as “athletic financial assistance,” which must be distributed in a nondiscriminatory manner under Title IX. The guidance had assumed that “the receipt of financial assistance does not transform students, including student-athletes, into employees,” but it opened the possibility to reevaluate that position.

The Education Department announcement also follows the NCAA’s announcement that it is banning transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports to align with President Trump’s recent executive order (EO), EO 14201, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” That order directed the Secretary of Education to “take all appropriate action to affirmatively protect all-female athletic opportunities and all-female locker rooms and thereby provide the equal opportunity guaranteed by Title IX.”

Next Steps

The Department of Education’s announcement will have significant implications for NCAA schools, which have been adjusting to the quick evolution of college athletics in recent years. Changes have included the removal of restrictions on athletes earning NIL pay, loosening restrictions on athlete transfers, and the potential for revenue-sharing between schools and their athletes. Such changes have raised concerns under Title IX, particularly with potential disparities in NIL pay between athletes in men’s and women’s sports.

While the prior guidance had interpreted NIL pay as subject to Title IX, the Department of Education under the Trump administration appears to interpret NIL payments, and even potentially revenue-sharing, as outside of the typical athletic financial assistance governed by Title IX. This could open the door for more payments to athletes in the sports that tend to generate the most revenue, typically college football and men’s basketball.

The announcement further signals more potential changes by the Trump administration with the enforcement of Title IX.

However, the rescission of the prior Title IX guidance may not be the end of the road. While some are praising the decision, others continue to argue that inequitable distribution of the settlement funds between men’s and women’s sports will violate Title IX. This could result in legal challenges as schools evaluate how best to distribute the payments.