Department of Education rescinds rev-share Title IX guidance

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has rescinded its Title IX guidance that would have impacted schools’ revenue-sharing plans. Released in January in the final days of the Biden administration, the guidance stated that future revenue distributions from an institution to an athlete for NIL rights were classified as “financial assistance.” If not proportionally divided, schools would risk violating Title IX.

The Trump administration has rescinded that guidance, clearing the pathway for over 80 percent of revenue-sharing dollars to be directed to college football and men’s basketball. For the 2025-26 academic year, schools will operate with a revenue-sharing cap of $20.5 million if the House v. NCAA settlement is officially approved this spring.

Specifically, most Power Four institutions are planning to distribute 75% to 85% of their $20.5 million revenue sharing to their football programs.

“The NIL guidance, rammed through by the Biden Administration in its final days, is overly burdensome, profoundly unfair, and it goes well beyond what agency guidance is intended to achieve,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement. “Without a credible legal justification, the Biden Administration claimed that NIL agreements between schools and student-athletes are akin to financial aid and must, therefore, be proportionately distributed between male and female athletes under Title IX.

“Enacted over 50 years ago, Title IX says nothing about how revenue-generating athletics programs should allocate compensation among student-athletes. The claim that Title IX forces schools and colleges to distribute student-athlete revenues proportionately based on gender equity considerations is sweeping and would require clear legal authority to support it. That does not exist.”

In the initial guidance, booster-funded NIL collectives were targeted, stating that, “The fact that funds are provided by a private source does not relieve a school of its responsibility.” With the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights rescinding that guidance, it relieves any pressure schools or NIL collectives felt on how to disperse dollars. Since the summer of 2021, NIL collectives have become critical to funding rosters.