AROUND NIL | SEP 15, 2025
- Golf NIL
- Sep 15
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 19
Sept. 14, 2025—The SCORE Act, designed to create federal NIL standards and give the NCAA protections, hit a wall in Congress. A recent vote was delayed after Republicans pulled support, influenced by lobbying from Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell, who champions ripping up the NCAA playbook—calling for a new governing body, rewriting college sports regulations, and overhauling TV rights under the Sports Broadcasting Act. The bill would require schools generating $20 million or more in athletic revenue to provide key benefits like mental health support, legal aid, and medical coverage—while capping athlete pay and granting limited antitrust protections to the NCAA and its conferences. Critics slam it for setting pay limits, restricting transfer freedoms, and cementing NCAA control without giving athletes any real say or collective bargaining rights.
Sept. 16, 2025—Maryland Athletics has teamed up with Under Armour and Luminary to launch a game-changing leadership program for its women’s athletes—a move designed to fill a glaring gap in career prep. This year-long opportunity hands these athletes professional mentoring, career workshops, and a solid network to lean on once the game’s over. Athletes gain access to Luminary’s platform, Under Armour swag, and a peer coaching group focused on real-world skills you won’t find in a playbook. Maryland AD Jim Smith and Luminary CEO Cate Luzio say this program is about crafting leaders—not just athletes. Terrapin golfers Nicha Kanpai (senior) and Julia Garcia (junior) are part of the select group tapped for the program.
Nicha Kanpai, at the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open, joins Maryland’s Women Athletes Leadership Program | Kathryn Riley/USGA
Sept. 16, 2025—Ivy League athletes will now see their biggest NIL deals scrutinized under new rules: athletic departments must certify they played no part in arranging any outside payment over $2,000—a sharp contrast to the big-money, pay-for-play model sweeping college sports. The policy, first reported by Bloomberg on Monday, goes beyond existing NCAA requirements, adding a public certification that the school had no role in brokering each significant NIL deal.
The Ivy League says the move protects its academic-first philosophy from the growing commercialization of college sports. But the policy risks alienating top recruits who might choose schools offering better financial opportunities.
It's the latest move by the conference to chart its own course—they also chose not to join the House v. NCAA settlement that allows other schools to pay athletes directly.
“One of the fundamental philosophies of the Ivy League is that student-athletes should have the same opportunities as all students, including the option to engage in projects that use their name, image and likeness,” said Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris. “These changes bring contemporary opportunities — in and beyond sports — to our ambitious and innovative student-athletes and are now more closely aligned with similar potential endeavors available to all students. I strongly encourage our student-athletes to be patient and prudent as these first-time experiences become available, because this is an evolving and complex situation.”
