Skip to main content
Join

Ted Cruz speaks out on new Title IX guidance, predicts Donald Trump will rescind

by:Alex Byington•about 12 hours•

_AlexByington

Syndication: Austin American-Statesman
Sen. Ted Cruz is introduced by former President Donald Trump at a rally at Million Air, a private airplane terminal at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Friday October 25, 2024.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, the upcoming chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, ripped into the Department of Education‘s recent memo clairifying that all future revenue-sharing between schools and student-athletes will be viewed as “financial assistance” and thus subject to Title IX rules.

“This is a great idea if (President Joe) Biden’s intent is to kill both men’s and women’s college sports,” Cruz wrote in a statement shared by Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger. “Mandating so-called equal pay when not all sports generate equal revenue will force some colleges out of athletics altogether. Everyone wants to be paid like Michael Jordan, but that’s not the way the world works. I predict this scheme will die on January 20th.”

January 20 is Inauguration Day, when President-elect Donald Trump will take office with the support of a Republican-led House of Representatives and Senate.

As the top ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Cruz will have the position and political clout to direct legislation that could impact the future of college sports, especially as it’s related to name, image and likeness (NIL) and future revenue-sharing.

Department of Education states revenue sharing payments must follow Title IX

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights released a memo on Title IX and NIL on Thursday, clarifying questions on whether revenue-sharing payments from schools must follow the parameters of Title IX. The federal law protects students from sex-based discrimination at any school that receives federal funding and stipulates schools must provide male and female athletes with equal treatment and benefits.

In the nine-page memo released Thursday, future revenue distributions from an institution to an athlete for NIL rights are classified as “financial assistance.” If not proportionally divided, schools would risk violating Title IX.

“When a school provides athletic financial assistance in forms other than scholarships or grants, including compensation for the use of a student-athlete’s NIL, such assistance also must be made proportionately available to male and female athletes,” the U.S. Department of Education memo stated.

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 agreed on this spring. Many schools were planning to allocate $15 to $17 million to football. Thursday’s memo will significantly impact those plans.

Sources told On3 on Thursday night that the guidance will significantly shake up how schools approach revenue-sharing payouts.

The memo also makes clear that the Department of Education does not view “compensation provided by a third party (rather than a school) to a student-athlete” as a Title IX violation. In addition, it does not “offer specific guidance on Title IX’s application in the context of compensation provided for the use of a student athlete’s NIL by a third party, including an NIL collective.”

NIL collectives have become imperative to retaining and attracting talent for top college football and basketball programs since athletes were allowed to begin monetizing their NIL four years ago.

On3’s Pete Nakos contributed to this report.