AROUND NIL THIS WEEK | APR 28, 2025
- Golf NIL
- Apr 28
- 2 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
April 28, 2025—Arkansas just rewrote the recruiting playbook, becoming the first state to exempt college athletes from paying state income tax on money earned through NIL deals or as a share of school athletic revenue. Signed into law by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the bill applies retroactively to January 1, 2025, and shields financial details from public records requests. Proponents argue the move gives Arkansas schools a crucial edge in luring top talent, especially against rivals in tax-free states like Texas and Tennessee. Critics see a slap in the face to regular students and residents who still pay state taxes while athletes cash in tax-free. With millions on the line, Arkansas just became a major player in the NIL arms race.
Arkansas junior John Daly II at the 2024 PNC Championship | Debby Wong/ZUMA Press
April 30, 2025—Metallica’s “For Whom the Band Tolls” contest, now teamed up with EA Sports College Football 26, is shaking up the NIL landscape. This isn’t about star athletes or top players—it’s about marching bands. College bands across the country perform Metallica classics using official arrangements, with industry pros narrowing the field before Metallica picks the winner. The top Division I college band scores $50,000 in equipment and gets to record both a Metallica track and the EA Sports College Football theme for the game. It’s a first: a college band program getting paid under NIL, pushing the model beyond athletics and into new campus influencer territory. Bands can enter at metallicamarchingband.com by November 1, 2025.
May 3, 2025—President Trump is weighing an executive order to tighten oversight of NIL payments to college athletes, following a meeting with Nick Saban, who argues unchecked NIL deals have damaged competitive balance in college sports. Saban pushed for reform, not abolition, seeking a more level playing field. Trump, reportedly sympathetic, directed aides to explore what an order might entail, though details remain unclear, and any meaningful change would likely require congressional action.
The move comes as the NCAA prepares to settle lawsuits allowing schools to pay athletes directly, a shift critics say could further widen gaps between programs. Supporters of NIL argue that targeting athlete earnings—while coaches, CEOs, and entertainers face no such limits—contradicts free-market principles and could spark legal challenges. For now, Trump’s potential order signals a rare executive branch intervention in a space shaped by courts and state legislatures, raising questions about fairness, federal overreach, and the future of college sports.
