Wisconsin legislators on the Assembly Committee on State Affairs unanimously passed a bill which would exempt NIL contracts and revenue sharing for any UW campus from Wisconsin’s public records law.
Wisconsin law currently holds that government records, including those of financial operations at the state's public universities, are generally public property.
While the bill codifies the university's ability to facilitate NIL deals for student athletes, it also includes the following language:
"The bill includes an exemption from the open records law for records in the custody of the board, an institution, or other formally constituted subunit of the board relating to 1) any term or detail of an agreement or proposed agreement for the use of a student-athlete’s name, image, or likeness; or 2) generation, deployment, or allocation of revenue generated by an intercollegiate athletic program that are the subject of reasonable efforts under the circumstances to maintain the secrecy of the records, when competitive reasons require confidentiality."
“Collegiate athletics has experienced more volatility in the last five years than the previous 50 years,” UW athletic direct Chris McIntosh said at the hearing. “I worry that the instability of the industry jeopardizes our ability to sustain success across all three pillars of our mission.”
Related: Utah House Passes Bill Exempting NIL Deals From Public Records Law
Some, however, argue that the bill goes to far, saying that the public has a right to transparency in matters of the university's finances.
“The public has a right to see what deals are being made, and how, and who is benefitting,” Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council told the Isthmus. “To change the open records law to allow secrecy is just a bad idea, and I hope that the governor considers vetoing it.”
Nancy Lynch, UW-Madison vice chancellor of legal affairs, said that the exemption is needed to “protect competitive interests and student privacy.”
“We seek only to codify our existing practice of denying access to student athlete NIL agreements and certain university records related to NIL strategy, allocation, revenue generation and use, the release of which would put us at an incredible disadvantage with our competitors,” said Lynch.
