In January, the NCAA was on the brink of passing groundbreaking legislation to grant athletes the right to earn compensation on endorsement deals, business ventures and public appearances.
The exhaustive 30-plus page legislative document governing name, image and likeness (NIL)—in the works for more than a year—marked progress forward in the NCAA’s march to modernize its archaic rules. The legislation struck down decades of prohibitions, freeing athletes to profit on their images like any other college student—a victorious win for athletes around the country.
And then, days before the organization's virtual annual summit in mid-January, the governing body shelved the proposal.