{"id":225,"date":"2024-04-25T08:42:12","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T12:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/?p=225"},"modified":"2025-07-25T13:08:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T17:08:46","slug":"virginia-nil-law-brings-more-change-to-college-sports-landscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/2024\/04\/25\/virginia-nil-law-brings-more-change-to-college-sports-landscape\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia NIL Law Brings More Change to College Sports Landscape"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Drew T. Dorner and Zach McCormack<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\"Sports<\/span><\/p>\n

On July 1, 2024, Virginia\u2019s recently passed amendments to its NIL law\u2014which include significant restrictions on the NCAA\u2019s ability to enforce its NIL policies\u2014will take effect.\u00a0 Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed <\/span>House Bill 1505<\/a> into law on April 18, 2024.\u00a0 Under the updated law, it will be illegal in Virginia for the NCAA to \u201ctake any adverse action against an institution, its supporting foundations, or an entity acting on its behalf\u201d for any NIL activity permitted under the statute, including direct compensation from an institution to its student-athletes for their name, image, and likeness rights (provided that student fees are not used).\u00a0 <\/span>Current NCAA rules<\/a> purport to prohibit institutions from \u201ccompensating student-athletes for use of their NIL,\u201d but Virginia\u2019s new law puts additional pressure on the NCAA to adapt.<\/span><\/p>\n

On top of re-affirming the rights of student-athletes to earn NIL money and limiting the enforcement powers of athletic associations and conferences, Virginia\u2019s amended law expressly authorizes private rights of action by athletes, institutions, \u201csupporting foundations,\u201d and entities acting on an institution\u2019s behalf.\u00a0 Any student-athlete \u201caggrieved\u201d by an institution, athletic association, conference, or similar organization may go to court for an injunction, while any institution (or its supporting foundations and entities acting on its behalf) may recover actual damages and attorneys\u2019 fees if it is subjected to \u201cany actual or threatened complaint, investigation, penalty, or other adverse action of an athletic association, athletic conference, or other organization with authority over intercollegiate athletics for engaging in activities permitted\u201d under the new law.<\/p>\n

Virginia\u2019s decision to allow institutions to directly compensate student-athletes stands out from other states that allow colleges to enable, but not necessarily be a direct party to, NIL deals.\u00a0 As we wrote about previously<\/a>, states like Missouri allowed collectives to condition NIL deals on attendance at a particular school and allowed schools to \u201cenable\u201d such deals.\u00a0 Virginia, however, may be the first<\/a> to permit direct NIL relationships between student-athletes and their colleges.<\/p>\n

While the new law could give Virginia colleges an upper hand in recruiting for now, some stakeholders still hope a federal law will make its way through Congress.\u00a0 University of Virginia Director of Athletics Carla Williams made it clear<\/a> that, despite the advantage that Virginia universities may gain from the new law, the ultimate goal is \u201ca federal solution or a national solution\u201d to NIL.\u00a0 Legislation similar to Virginia\u2019s new law that other states (South Carolina, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi) are considering may increase the pressure on the NCAA and Congress to develop a NIL law that applies nationwide.\u00a0 Virginia\u2019s law could also engender support for Charlie Baker\u2019s proposed plan<\/a> from December, as major Division I schools outside Virginia will want to minimize any advantages for schools in The Old Dominion.<\/p>\n\n\n

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By Drew T. Dorner and Zach McCormack On July 1, 2024, Virginia\u2019s recently passed amendments to its NIL law\u2014which include significant restrictions on the NCAA\u2019s ability to enforce its NIL policies\u2014will take effect.\u00a0 Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed House Bill 1505 into law on April 18, 2024.\u00a0 Under the updated law, it will be illegal … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Virginia NIL Law Brings More Change to College Sports Landscape”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":572,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[339],"class_list":["post-225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"authors":[{"term_id":339,"user_id":572,"is_guest":0,"slug":"dtdorner","display_name":"Drew T. Dorner","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2022\/07\/dornerdrew-100x100.jpg","author_category":"","last_name":"Dorner","first_name":"Drew T.","job_title":"","user_url":"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/drewtdorner.html","description":"Read Drew's bio.<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/572"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/sportslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}