A 'clever' way for universities to pay college athletes for playing sports?

Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• A Utah bill proposes universities compensate athletes for name, image, likeness use.
• Senators question if this is a way to pay athletes for playing sports.
• Concerns arise over transparency and prioritizing sports over academics in universities.

SALT LAKE CITY — As a bill works its way through the Utah Legislature to allow universities to compensate college athletes for the use of their name, image and likeness, one state senator wondered if it's just a "clever" way to pay them for playing sports.

Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, also questioned why those payments wouldn't be publicly available under the state Government Records Access and Management Act.

Lawmakers also expressed frustration about putting sports ahead of academics during a Senate Education Committee meeting last week, with some saying what was once amateur athletics is turning into "semi-pro" sports.

'Clever' way to pay college athletes?

Their comments came during a hearing on HB449, which would allow schools to directly pay athletes for the use of their name, image and likeness.

"Does that mean the university cannot compensate them for actually playing football?" Fillmore asked.

Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden, the Senate sponsor of the legislation, replied, "If they're playing football and they're a star player, the name, image and likeness is going to be part of what we use. So what you're really doing is compensating them because of the name, image and likeness that they have based on being football players."

"That seems awfully clever to me," Fillmore said. "Why not just pay them for playing football?"

Last year, a judge preliminarily approved a settlement in the House v. NCCA antitrust case that would create a revenue sharing model in college sports. If the agreement goes through in April, universities could earmark as much as $20.5 million to directly pay athletes starting in July. Most Power Four schools are expected to spend $15 to $17 million on their football rosters.

Millner told the committee the court case is driving the legislation and the proposed law is necessary for the "large" schools in the state to compete with universities across the country, noting other states are passing similar legislation.

Should public university name, image, likeness payments be secret?

Fillmore also raised questions about transparency in the use of public money.

Last year, lawmakers passed a law making name, image and likeness contracts with third parties, such as businesses, private records under the Government Records Access and Management Act. He said that made sense because public funds weren't involved.

"But this is public money. I understand it's not legislatively appropriated money, but regardless of that, when it goes to a university, it becomes public money," Fillmore said.

"Is this information going to be publicly available subject to GRAMA because now it's public money?" he asked.

The original version of the bill stated that direct payments to athletes would be public records subject to the Government Records Access and Management Act. But the House sponsor of the bill, Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, stripped that from a revised version, saying the universities believe the payments would be private under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

In 2023, Utah universities argued that name, image, likeness contracts are "education records" under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in a case involving the Deseret News' attempt to obtain athletes' name, image, likeness agreements submitted to their schools. The act broadly defines education records as "records directly related to a student" and "maintained by an education agency."

The State Records Committee, which lawmakers are poised to abolish this year, rejected that argument and ordered the universities to release the contracts. The schools appealed the ruling in state court where a judge ultimately decided name, image, likeness contracts are private records after the Legislature changed the law to shield them from public view last year.

HB449 is now silent on whether direct athlete payments are public records but does not preclude anyone from requesting them under the Government Records Access and Management Act. Millner said they could be subject to the public records law.

Fillmore said it made sense that contracts between college athletes and outside organizations were private.

"But now that it's public universities paying athletes, I'm not sure that it remains a private matter anymore, and that's something we ought to consider as we move forward," he said.

The bill prohibits schools from using state funds for name, image, likeness payments. Millner said the money would come from TV and media contracts as well as gifts and donations to the universities. The legislation requires an audit of name, image, likeness spending every five years starting in 2028.

Athletics over academics?

While Education Committee members said they understand the need for the bill, they were frustrated about having to consider it at all.

"It's unfortunate that our highest paid employees in most states are coaches. And it's unfortunate that we now have the tail wagging the dog when it comes to education," said Sen. Kathleen Reibe, D-Cottonwood Heights.

"I understand this bill is somewhat necessary if we want to be competing in the academic sports arena, but it's really unfortunate that we put so much time and energy into these sports, and we're cutting school budgets, but we're increasing our access to better athletes," she said.

University of Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham is the highest paid state employee, making $5.7 million in 2025, according to the state website TransparentUtah.

Reibe voted for the bill but said, "At some point, we all have to recognize that our education institutions are education institutions and not sporting arenas. This really frustrates me."

Senate Education Committee Chair John Johnson, R-North Ogden, echoed Reibe's comments.

"Utah needs a law regarding direct athlete payments but lawmakers need to ask themselves, 'Are we funding universities as academic institutions or are we creating media … entertainment, I guess, for the general public?'" Johnson asked.

"At some point we really need to ask ourselves how far are we going to go with this," he said. "Because now it really is becoming a semi-pro team and … we have to ask ourselves if we're in that business."

The committee unanimously approved HB449. It's now awaiting a vote in the Senate.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

Related topics

Utah higher educationUtah LegislaturePoliticsUtahEducation

Dennis Romboy

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Dennis Romboy is an editor and reporter for the Deseret News. He has covered a variety of beats over the years, including state and local government, social issues and courts. A Utah native, Romboy earned a degree in journalism from the University of Utah. He enjoys cycling, snowboarding and running.