This week, the Southeastern Conference presidents voted to adopt standardized revenue sharing and name, image, and likeness contracts across the conference. The SEC joins the Big Ten in utilizing uniform contracts for student-athletes.
According to CBS Sports, the new contracts will contain some customizable sections, possibly including provisions regarding medical disqualifications, violation of morals, head coaching changes and liquidated damages clauses.
The Big Ten was the first conference to circulate standardized NIL contracts to member schools in 2025. But even with a standard template, contracts can vary greatly between institutions.
Related: CSC Loosens Minimum NIL Deal Review Value Again, Raises Cap to $15K
The Big Ten includes a “No Employment” clause which “requires the player to acknowledge he is not an employee and waive any claim that he is.” CBS Sports reported that an early draft of the SEC’s contract included language that “barred athletes and their representatives from trying to initiate, solicit, entertain, negotiate, accept or discuss offers from other schools while under contract.”
The timing of the SEC vote is also relevant to the Protect College Sports Act, which passed the Senate in late September. If it becomes law, the bill would provide the NCAA with an antitrust exemption designed to help the association enforce a cap on how much teams can pay their athletes, as well as other rules that have deteriorated because of legal challenges in recent years. If the bill becomes law, athletes will be limited to transferring one time without penalty during their college career. It would reinforce new NCAA rules that limit athletes to a five-year window to compete in college that begins either when they finish high school or turn 19 years old.
Related: Protect College Sports Act Passes Senate, Heads to House After Midterms
The move to create standardized NIL contracts is seen by some as a step toward self-governance, but the SEC presidents stopped short of reinstating the conference’s intraconference transfer policy, which would have been another key self-governing proposal. Prior to 2021, if an SEC student-athlete transferred to another SEC school, they were required to sit out for one season.
