How a conference call gave Texas’ new NIL bill a push through the Senate

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. (KBTX) – Well after sunlight ceased permeating the windows of the Texas Senate chamber Tuesday, Senator Brandon Creighton stood to, again, present a bill he had sponsored for debate.

His message to fellow senators was as complicated as the issue the bill addresses, but there was a simple point distributed throughout — if House Bill 126 doesn’t pass in the final week of this legislative session, college football in the state of Texas would, in essence, die.

Ultimately, a 30-1 vote sent the new name, image and likeness (NIL) compensation legislation through the Senate and to the desk of Gov. Greg Abbott to sign into law. To Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, president of the Senate, it was his colleges that performed CPR on college athletics in the state.

“The Senate saved college sports in Texas,” Patrick boasted from the dais before moving on to other business.

However, an 11th-hour conference call between senators, coaches and athletic directors provided the necessary last push to get the important bill over the finish line in the Senate chambers after two evenings of confusion and debate.

“It seems that a lot of the members wanted to vent their frustration with their concerns about college football and where this is going and paying the athletes and the change in the NCAA… A lot of members have concerns about the rich getting richer and the small guy doesn’t have a chance and it’s not going to be competitive,” Rep. Carl Tepper (R-District 84), the bill’s original author, told KBTX. “And so, we’re still not really sure where this is headed, but this is certainly the right direction to keep Texas on par with the rest of the country.”

The current NIL bill on Texas’s books does not allow universities to enter into direct contracts with athletes and prohibits athletes from earning NIL money while participating in team activities. The pending settlement for the House v. NCAA antitrust case opens the door for athletic departments to share revenue up to $20.5 million per year for the use of athletes’ names, images and likenesses during game broadcasts and in promotion of the department. A clause in HB 126 also allows for flexibility in the state law should the NCAA or a court ruling change the landscape or rules regarding NIL compensation in the future. The state needed an update to its law to allow Texas universities to participate in these portions of the settlement.

Sen. Brandon Creighton, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, first presented HB 126 on Sunday evening. However, the legislation faced immediate pushback from Sen. Royce West (D-District 23) and Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R-District 18), questioning whether loosening NIL restrictions would allow college programs to offer NIL deals to students as young as middle school.

“Colleges can go and start talking about NIL money to, like, children,” Kolkhorst said on the Senate floor. “What is going to happen is the agents, now, are going to be working through children. I’m not mad at [Creighton] and I’m not mad at Rep. Tepper. I think I’m mad at the United States of America for truly having a collapse of amateur athleticism and we’re going to have agents going and talking to 12 year olds.”

Patrick, noting the late hour, called Creighton forward for a side conversation, the result of which was tabling the bill for a later debate.

In the interim, the concerned senators held a conference call with administrators, coaches and legal council from athletic departments across the state to help clarify the purpose of the new NIL bill. To ease concerns about financially predatory actors preying on talented younger athletes, the Senate drafted an amendment to the legislation that said universities or third-party entities could not enter into an NIL contract with athletes younger than 17.

“I think it allayed some concern, but the bill already doesn’t allow any payment to any student that’s not enrolled at the school,” Tepper said. “So, you can do 100 contracts, but you actually have to show up until the contract is executed and commenced.”

Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte, who was part of the conference call, said he understood the senators’ concerns and had no problem with the amendment.

“I think they’re very thoughtful in the state of Texas that publicity rights are a collegiate opportunity,” he said Wednesday at SEC Spring Meetings. “It’s protecting high school, middle school and junior high. They wanted to do that and I understood that.”

Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts was unavailable for comment due to his commitments presenting at SEC Spring Meetings, according to a spokesperson. Requests for comment from many of the senators involved in the debate were not returned.

Two days and a conference call later, Creighton presented the bill once again on the Senate floor to a mostly united chamber. Sen. Kelly Hancock (R-District 9) took the floor in support of the bill.

“I have had constituents with young men and women that, because they live in our state and we have not done this, have contacted my office and said, ‘Hey, y’all need to pass something. My child wants to go to school in the state of Texas, but y’all are going to have to compete with the other people talking to my child,’” Hancock said.

Eventually, with the flick of the gavel, Patrick called for a vote to suspend the three-day rule resulting in an immediate vote on the bill. The count tallied 30 in favor and one “non sports fan,” he announced.

“Here’s to winning in Texas,” Patrick said, putting finality on the issue.

Now, the amended bill must be approved by the House before it finds its way to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk to sign into law. Coaches across the state desire a two-thirds majority vote in the House that will put the law into effect as soon as it is signed. If it gets less, the bill will become law on Sept. 1, losing valuable months of signing contracts and recruiting, should the House settlement be approved.

Tepper said he is hopeful his colleges will understand the importance of the two-thirds vote.

“I hate to predict things, because you just own’t want to muck it up somehow, but I’m confident that my colleges see the importance of this. I’m confident that they realize this has been hashed out as much as it can be hashed out as much as it can be hashed out. The situation is the situation and also, this is an opportunity for these high school and college athletes. I”m hoping and pleading and praying that they concur.”

But, Tepper sees the light at the end of a long tunnel that provided new life to college athletics in Texas.

“It’s more like satisfying that you know that you might have had a small hand in saving college football in Texas,” he said.

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