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A special Florida House panel Thursday held off making recommendations about the potential effects of a pending national legal settlement that could require state universities and colleges to pay millions of dollars to current and some former athletes. With a hearing scheduled for April 7 on a tentative $2.78 billion settlement, the House Combined Workgroup on Collegiate Name, Image, and Likeness agreed to reconvene after the court hearing when the effects on universities and colleges could be better known. “Why don’t we wait to see what the … settlement actually is, the finality of it. … Once we have that, that’s a road map … with which we can now map this out,” said Rep. Alex Rizo, a Hialeah Republican who led the workgroup, which was made up of members of the House Education & Employment Committee, the Higher Education Budget Subcommittee and the Civil Justice & Claims Subcommittee. Rizo said discussions could continue into the fall, as lawmakers hold committee meetings to prepare for the 2026 legislative session. The settlement involves allowing athletes who played at the Division I level since at least 2016 to recoup money from name, image and likeness, or NIL, deals they had been barred from entering. Multiple lawmakers expressed opposition to shifting money from education purposes to athletics. The discussion also included capping amounts of pay that student athletes’ agents could receive. Lawmakers have proposed bills about agent compensation, including a bill (SB 1584) by Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, that would allow agents to receive no more than 5 percent of an athlete’s total compensation. State university system Chancellor Ray Rodrigues voiced support for the House panel holding off on making recommendations. Rodrigues said there appears to be some support from the university system’s Board of Governors and state regulators to “give some flexibility” in using non-state dollars.
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