Bill passed in Missouri allows state’s college coaches to help players secure NIL deals
Missouri college coaches and staff can be more involved in student-athletes’ name, image and likeness endorsement contracts under legislation now headed to Gov. Mike Parson’s desk.
A bill passed by both chambers of the Missouri legislature Thursday would give university employees the OK to interact with third-party NIL entities and help student athletes earn money through their own personal brands.
It allows coaches to “basically barter on behalf of athletes,” said Rep. Wes Rogers, a Kansas City Democrat.
Rep. Kurtis Gregory, a Marshall Republican, tacked the language onto a sweeping higher education bill. It passed the House by a vote of 148-1. The Senate approved it 32-1.
The amendment introduced by Gregory, a former Missouri offensive lineman, would allow coaches and school personnel to “identify or otherwise assist with opportunities for a student athlete to earn compensation from a third party for the use of the student athlete’s name, image, likeness rights, or athletic reputation.”
The bill comes in the same week the NCAA set guidelines to emphasize that boosters shouldn’t have contact with recruits, their family members or representatives.
It was the NCAA’s first response to NIL rules it quickly established last summer to include all schools as legislatures were enacting rules to cover the colleges and universities in their own states.
In attempting to stave off pay-for-play, NCAA schools received guidelines Monday that say boosters or collectives who contact recruits or sign athletes to contracts that are contingent upon a player’s attendance at a particular school are breaking NCAA rules and could be subject to sanctions.
Collectives have sprung up at schools over the past year and are being used to raise money from boosters and fans and distribute it to athletes through their NIL deals.
Rogers, who said he worked to make sure Democrats were on board with the legislation, said it was in direct response to similar legislation passed in Tennessee.
“This is the wild west, we really need federal legislation,” he said. “But, until there is federal legislation, we’re going to make sure we’ve got the best legislative landscape possible.”
The Star’s Blair Kerkhoff contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 6:22 PM.
