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Who Owns Your Face? The Legal Fight for Identity In The Age of AI

While intellectual property laws, privacy regulations and NIL agreements attempt to address these issues, they often lag behind innovation, leaving individuals vulnerable to exploitation. The intersection of AI, NIL and biometric data collection raises profound concerns about whether existing legal frameworks adequately protect personal property rights while fostering innovation. The Fourth Amendment, which protects against […]

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Who Owns Your Face? The Legal Fight for Identity In The Age of AI


While intellectual property laws, privacy regulations and NIL agreements attempt to address these issues, they often lag behind innovation, leaving individuals vulnerable to exploitation. The intersection of AI, NIL and biometric data collection raises profound concerns about whether existing legal frameworks adequately protect personal property rights while fostering innovation.
The Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, does not extend to private companies. As a result, corporations can collect and use biometric data with minimal oversight unless state laws like BIPA apply. Moreover, many companies bury consent clauses deep within terms of service agreements, effectively stripping users of ownership without their full understanding.
Lawmakers must also develop clear guidelines on how AI-generated likenesses can be used. While some argue for an outright ban on unauthorized deepfakes, others suggest a licensing model where individuals can opt into or out of AI-generated representations. Laws like BIPA should also serve as a model for national legislation.
As technology evolves, so too must our understanding of personal identity and ownership. The rapid rise of AI-generated deepfakes, NIL contracts and biometric data collection presents both opportunities and risks. Without stronger legal protections, individuals risk losing control over their most personal asset — their own face. However, any legal reforms must balance the need for privacy and autonomy with the benefits of innovation.
Aron Solomon is the chief strategy officer for Amplify. He holds a law degree and has taught entrepreneurship at McGill University and the University of Pennsylvania, and was elected to Fastcase 50, recognizing the top 50 legal innovators in the world. His writing has been featured in Newsweek, The Hill, Fast Company, Fortune, Forbes, CBS News, CNBC, USA Today and many other publications. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his op-ed in The Independent exposing the NFL’s “race-norming” policies.

No easy answers

The advent of NIL rights in college athletics represents a significant shift in how individuals can monetize their personal brand. The NCAA’s decision in 2021 to allow athletes to profit from NIL deals was heralded as a win for personal property rights. Yet these agreements also introduce complex legal challenges.
Individuals should have the right to opt out of biometric data collection and demand the deletion of their data upon request. Athletes and other public figures need stronger protections against exploitative NIL contracts. Transparency requirements, mandatory legal review periods, and caps on contract duration could prevent individuals from unintentionally signing away their rights.
In an era where artificial intelligence can generate hyper-realistic deepfakes, companies monetize biometric data, and athletes fight for their rights under name, image and likeness, or  NIL, contracts, a fundamental question emerges: Do we truly own our own faces?
Third-party AI-generated NIL exploitation poses a growing threat. If an athlete refuses to sign an NIL deal, what prevents companies from using AI to create deepfake versions of them? While some NIL contracts include exclusivity provisions, they rarely address unauthorized AI-generated likenesses, leaving a loophole for exploitation.

The growing threat of AI in NIL exploitation

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Despite these emerging legal battles, current laws fail to comprehensively address the question of whether individuals truly own their own faces. Several key areas require reform. The U.S. lacks a nationwide legal standard for NIL and likeness rights. Establishing a federal right to publicity could help individuals maintain control over their name, image and likeness across all industries.
Some deals include perpetuity clauses, meaning an athlete could unknowingly sign away lifelong rights to their image. In essence, rather than securing ownership over their face, some athletes may end up losing it to corporate interests.
It’s a given today that deepfake technology has progressed to the point where AI-generated images, videos and audio can be nearly indistinguishable from reality. This advancement raises serious concerns about ownership and consent. If an AI-generated deepfake replicates a person’s likeness without their permission, do they have legal recourse? The answer depends largely on jurisdiction and existing legal frameworks. Some U.S. states have enacted laws criminalizing certain uses of deepfakes, particularly in cases of nonconsensual pornography or election interference.
While stronger protections are necessary, it is also important to recognize the role of innovation. AI has tremendous potential in industries such as film, advertising and gaming, where digital likenesses can be used for creative purposes. Rather than stifling progress, legal frameworks should strike a balance between protecting individual rights and fostering technological advancements. A possible solution is compensatory licensing models, where companies using AI-generated likenesses must pay royalties to the individuals they replicate. Such a system would preserve personal ownership while allowing businesses to continue innovating.
Some states have taken legislative action. Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) is one of the strongest laws in the U.S., requiring companies to obtain explicit consent before collecting and storing biometric data. BIPA has led to significant legal battles, including a 0 million settlement from Facebook over its facial recognition practices. But the reality is that federal law offers little protection.
For instance, California’s AB 602 provides a private right of action for individuals whose likeness is used in deepfake pornography without consent. Similarly, Virginia criminalized the unauthorized distribution of deepfake pornography. But these laws focus on specific harms rather than broader issues of likeness ownership.

Striking a balance

Illustration: Dom Guzman
While the past decade has seen increasing levels of daily personal digital experiences, today’s advancements in AI have us on the precipice of…
We all see our personal identity as sacrosanct, but the pace at which technology is evolving and the legal system desperately trying to catch up challenges our assumption.

The planned billion acquisition of cloud security unicorn Wiz by Google parent Alphabet doesn’t come as a shock to many who watch cybersecurity…
Beyond deepfakes and NIL, biometric data collection presents another critical challenge to personal ownership. From facial recognition technology in airports to social media platforms collecting facial data, corporations and governments have amassed vast databases of personal identifiers. But who owns this data, and what rights do individuals have over it?

The future of personal identity in the digital age depends on finding this equilibrium, ensuring that no one is forced to surrender ownership of their likeness to corporations or AI algorithms without consent. Until then, the question remains: Can we ever truly own our own face?

The past two weeks have brought a flurry of big-ticket M&A deals and IPO filings. The action culminated today with Google’s announcement of a planned…
A huge problem is that federal law lacks a comprehensive approach here. The First Amendment complicates efforts to regulate deepfakes because courts must balance an individual’s right to control their likeness against free speech protections. For example, if an AI-generated deepfake is used for satire, parody or commentary, it may be legally protected even if it causes reputational harm.
One primary concern is the potential for coercion and unfair contracts. Many young athletes, particularly those without legal representation, may sign NIL contracts that severely limit their ability to control their image.
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CFB’s most mysterious title race since 2016, plus AP Top 25 notes

Until Saturday Newsletter 🏈 | This is The Athletic’s college football newsletter. Sign up here to receive Until Saturday directly in your inbox. Today in college football news, the trees outside of Appalachian State’s stadium are as lovely as expected. I forgot to take a photo for you. Shrug: Favorites by default Here’s a fun thing […]

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Until Saturday Newsletter 🏈 | This is The Athletic’s college football newsletter. Sign up here to receive Until Saturday directly in your inbox.

Today in college football news, the trees outside of Appalachian State’s stadium are as lovely as expected. I forgot to take a photo for you.

Shrug: Favorites by default

Here’s a fun thing you can do with sportsbook odds, even if you don’t wager on them: use them to figure out implied probabilities. When Vegas says a team has 2-to-1 odds of winning, a calculator tells us that equates to about a 33.3 percent chance.

(Yes, Stanford alumni, that was a really simple example. Some of us failed algebra more than once.)

Using that, it’s easy to notice something rare going on in in 2025’s national title odds, when compared to the past decade.

  • In the previous 10 seasons, Vegas implied the average preseason favorite had a 27.8 percent chance of winning it all. Last year, sportsbooks gave Georgia about a 25 percent chance, for example. This year, favorites Ohio State and Texas have odds roughly half as good as the usual favorites, about 16.7 percent, according to most books.
  • During the past 10 years, the sole season with a less probable favorite was 2016, when Alabama led the way at only 15.4 percent (due in part to starting a freshman quarterback and eventual Super Bowl MVP by the name of Jalen Hurts).
  • Most of these previous seasons had two or more teams with better championship odds than either of 2025’s top two. As in: Vegas implied 2022’s Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia were each likelier to win the title than 2025’s No. 1 Texas is.

Why the unusual trepidation? Why the lack of a truly clear favorite? Whenever something weird happens these days in college football, we can just blame it on something called The Transfer Portal And Bigger Playoff And NIL, then grumble about wishing things would go back to the way they were when we were 17, right? Wait, wasn’t modernity supposed to make CFB’s bullies more impervious, rather than less? Nevermind.

Lots of top teams happen to be starting over at QB all at once, and it’s partly due to something more definitively 2020s than even The Transfer Portal And Bigger Playoff And NIL:

  • Last season, Miami got to enjoy Cam Ward’s fifth year, which he earned due to the NCAA’s 2020-season eligibility rules. Miami’s now replacing Ward with Georgia transfer Carson Beck, which means QB shrugs for both the No. 5 Dawgs and No. 10 Canes. (Beck is himself a millionth-year senior, because this era’s not quite done yet.)
  • Same story for the defending champs, where Ohio State is likely replacing fifth-year Will Howard with the untested Julian Sayin. Granted, the sophomore is a former five-star throwing to former five-stars, but the point is that the Buckeyes might be a bigger favorite if, say, there hadn’t been a fifth-year QB available to play ahead of Sayin last year.

Among the QBs starting for the preseason AP poll’s top 10 teams (more below), only No. 4 Clemson’s Cade Klubnik and No. 9 LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier feel like sure things, though there’s a good case for No. 2 Penn State’s Drew Allar putting it together with a revamped WR corps or for No. 1 Texas’ Arch Manning being a Manning.

And that’s how you end up with a bunch of legit contenders, but no standout favorite, which should make for a nicely chaotic season at the top.

(By the way: Wanna know the three biggest preseason favorites of the past decade? Scroll to the bottom. Engagement!)

Quick Snaps

🏜️ Arizona has trees, actually. Read up on the decades-long Camp Tontozona tradition that turned the “misfit” Sun Devils into Big 12 champs.

📺 Whenever “NFL RedZone” is in the news (most recently because of a big ESPN deal), everyone will once again wish there were a college football version. Dan Shanoff explains five reasons it ain’t happening. (I’ve found YouTube TV’s mostly configurable quadboxes to be a decent compromise.)

🐘 Alabama‘s new starting quarterback is indeed Ty Simpson, one of those numerous mystery QBs mentioned above. No. 47 in QB Tiers.

🌀 “Every year, we all have a brand-new team and a brand-new roster,” Tulane coach Jon Sumrall said. “That’s not just me. That’s everybody.” Five ways the coaches at the (semi-unofficial) second level of CFB are adapting to the portal era.

🅾️ A truly harrowing question: Is Oklahoma in danger of becoming the new Nebraska? (Probably not.)

🐴 One of this season’s biggest stories: What’s next for Florida State after a 2-10 record that’s still hard to believe? Matt Baker on the Noles’ latest overhaul.

Rankings! Texas barely No. 1 in AP

In the closest AP preseason vote since 1998 (when Ohio State outranked Florida State), Texas ranks No. 1 ahead of Penn State, partly thanks to receiving just two more first-place votes in the poll released yesterday. (Unlike the Coaches Poll, Ohio State ranks No. 3 instead of No. 2, but as noted last week, that still means Texas-Ohio State on Aug. 30 will rank as the biggest season-opening game ever.)

The full top 25 is here, led by your reminder that the Horns had never been preseason No. 1 until now:

“Texas is the 24th school to be preseason No. 1. Oklahoma, the Longhorns’ Red River rivals, has the record with 10 appearances at No. 1 since the preseason poll started in 1950. Alabama has been preseason No. 1 nine times and Ohio State eight.”

And as expected, it’s the highest preseason ranking since 1997 for Penn State, since 1998 for No. 11 Arizona State, since 1990 for No. 12 Illinois and since 1985 for No. 16 SMU — plus No. 8 Alabama’s lowest since 2008. Somebody should put out another poll next week, so I can reuse this paragraph again.

More Top 25:

As always, email me about whatever at untilsaturday@theathletic.com. Oh right, that trivia I promised you: Betting markets gave 2018 Bama, 2020 Clemson and 2022 Bama roughly 34.5 percent odds to win national titles. None of them did.

Last week’s most-clicked: Of course it was “The Sports Gossip Show” talking about their curious encounters with Jordon Hudson.

📫 Love Until Saturday? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters, too.

(Top photo: Katie Januck/Getty Images)



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Five-star commit Felix Ojo’s bold prediction

“I feel like Lubbock and Texas Tech is a special place, special program. What coach McGuire is building is great. In the next 2-3 years we’re gonna be a national championship contender” – 5⭐️ Texas Tech OL commit Felix Ojo (@FelixTheOL) Full interview coming to RRS #GunsUp pic.twitter.com/TOS4utlfxS — RedRaiderSports.com (@RedRaiderSports) August 12, 2025 The […]

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The Texas Tech Red Raiders football program is going to be an interesting case study over the next few seasons. A team that has historically been a middling program and has suddenly seen an influx of talent. That isn’t to say that players like Graham Harrell, Michael Crabtree, and Patrick Mahomes weren’t talented.

Lubbock is starting to see five-star talent look their way. It started with five-star WR Micah Hudson, and now the Red Raiders have seen two more five-star players commit to the program, including Felix Ojo, who everyone thought would go the way of the Longhorns. While head coach Joey McGuire brings a lot of energy, the reason that the Red Raiders are in the thick of the recruiting landscape is NIL.

Welcome to the new college landscape, where Board of Regents chairman Cody Campbell is wheeling and dealing to put a championship-caliber team on the field. It certainly helps that he is a billionaire. He turned the softball team into a contender in one season after bringing the top player in the country, NiJaree Canady, to Lubbock. They were one win away from a title. But can he do that with the football program? Ojo thinks so.

“I feel like Lubbock and Texas Tech is a special place, special program,” Ojo said via Red Raider Sports. “What coach McGuire is building is great. In the next 2-3 years, we’re gonna be a national championship contender.”

One shouldn’t be oblivious to the fact that the only reason Tech can compete on the trails with some of the heavy hitters in college football is NIL. That is just the nature of the beast. While it is nice to see a new face jump into the thick of things on the national recruiting trail, the wins need to come, or this is just all for not.

Keep your eyes on the South Plains of Texas, where the Red Raiders look to create a dust storm of their own at Jones AT&T Stadium.





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High school coach provides early frontrunner for quote of the year with comparison involving NIL and his daughters

Every year there’s a press conference moment, or post game interview where a fired up coach blesses us with a sound byte worthy of quote of the year honors. Typically it happens at the college level, but with high school football seasons kicking off around the country the past few weeks, Capital HS (WV) head […]

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Every year there’s a press conference moment, or post game interview where a fired up coach blesses us with a sound byte worthy of quote of the year honors.

Typically it happens at the college level, but with high school football seasons kicking off around the country the past few weeks, Capital HS (WV) head coach Jon Carpenter had a gem roll off his tongue this week.

On August 11th, West Virginia joined a growing number of states who have announced high school athletes can now get paid for Name, Image and Likeness deals. The Mountaineer state is also allowing middle school athletes the same ability as well.

Asked his thoughts on the topic, with the top 2027 running back in the state in David Robinson practicing for his program in the background, Carpenter shared he really doesn’t “pay attention to all that stuff.”

Carpenter contends that NIL has already been a part of West Virginia high school football for years, just take a look at the schools that get 20 transfers each year. He went on to praise the loyalty that Robinson and his family have showed in making the intentional choice to play for the community they take so much pride in before pausing for a second and adding this zinger.

“I tell [the players], I’ve got daughters. Are you going to let your daughters go out with someone who has been to four or five high schools? And have bailed every time for more money or whatever?”

“Nope. I wouldn’t let those guys show up to see my daughter.”

“I think that’s why I like David Robinson so much. If your goal is to get a scholarship, that’s why David Robinson has got them, because he’s turned down money and all that to give back to his community, and he’s got pride in himself.”

“With someone like that, NIL money can’t buy you pride or your guts, so I’ll roll with people like that.”

Carpenter, who led Capital to the state title in 2014 and brought home state coach of the year honors in 2017, stepped away a few seasons ago after a very public battle with the school board was sparked by what he called inequities between Capital and other Kanawha County football programs. Capital, who shares its field with University of Charleston, had over 50 practices cut short or moved over a three year span, was left out of levy money given to every other county team for a new turf playing surface, further igniting issues between Carpenter and the school.

After leading the program to an impressive 91-35 record in 11 seasons from 2010-2020, Carpenter returned to Capital as head coach after a three year absence in December of 2023.

Hear more of his thoughts on West Virginia NIL in the clip. 





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Why Authentic Brands Group Is Playing the Long Game With Reebok

Authentic Brands Group’s acquisition of Reebok in 2022 was a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, Reebok found itself finally separated from Adidas. Already a long way from its glory days as Nike’s chief rival in the sneaker wars of the late 1980s when the German footwear giant acquired the Boston-based brand in […]

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Why Authentic Brands Group Is Playing the Long Game With Reebok

Authentic Brands Group’s acquisition of Reebok in 2022 was a bit of a double-edged sword.

On one hand, Reebok found itself finally separated from Adidas. Already a long way from its glory days as Nike’s chief rival in the sneaker wars of the late 1980s when the German footwear giant acquired the Boston-based brand in 2005, by 2022 Reebok was a shadow of its former self. Adidas had long ago siphoned off top athletes and league deals, pigeonholing Reebok into niche categories like cross-training.

“Under Adidas, we were somewhat kind of stifled,” said Reebok chief executive Todd Krinsky, who had been with the company for more than three decades before ABG appointed him to the top job. “It was dark days for us, man.”

But there wasn’t much reason to expect things to get better under the new owner. Primarily known as a holding company for distressed brands like Juicy Couture and Nautica, Authentic Brands Group’s usual strategy was to license faded but well-known names, while investments in product innovation, marketing and retail were typically lower priorities. At $2.5 billion, Reebok was by far ABG’s biggest acquisition to date, and even in its diminished state, in a healthier position than many of its new portfolio-mates.

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Some feared Reebok could be reduced to a logo on cheap T-shirts and bottles of perfume. ABG has hired third parties to operate and distribute Reebok in key markets. But it clearly has big ambitions for the brand, particularly in basketball. Reebok appointed retired NBA superstars Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson as the president and vice president of basketball operations (ABG owns both players’ name and likeness; a Netflix series about their work to revive the brand debuted in June). Menswear designer Jide Osifeso was named head of basketball earlier this year, focusing on design and creative direction. The Engine A unisex hoops silhouette launched to much fanfare in January. WNBA star Angel Reese signed a multiyear deal in 2024 and her shoe is set to launch soon.

ABG has also expanded distribution, inking a deal with JD Group in 2021 before the Adidas sale was formalised in 2022 to place Reebok in nearly 3,000 stores across the US and Europe. In June, Reebok entered into a partnership with Italy-based streetwear company Slam Jam to further bolster the brand’s global presence.

This expansion for Reebok seems to be paying dividends. In January 2024, ABG chief Jamie Salter said the company had in the previous year hit $5 billion in annual sales, up from $1.6 billion in 2020 under Adidas, and planned on reaching $10 billion by 2027, according to Retail Dive.

Reebok’s success under ABG hasn’t entirely quieted scepticism about the company’s ultimate plans for the brand.

“I think the game that’s being played is dangerous because of what we know about Authentic Brands Group,” Collab Lab founder and sneaker marketing expert Bimma Williams said. “I don’t believe they’re in it for the long haul. I don’t believe they have a bone in their body that’s like ‘We are diehard and bullish about basketball.’”

Reports surfaced that ABG was in talks with Anta to potentially sell the brand off. Steve Robaire, Reebok’s executive vice president, denied the report and said ABG is in the Reebok business for the long haul.

“There’s a massive opportunity for Authentic to continue growing into the sport ecosystem. Reebok is at the heart of our strategy,” Robaire said. “We’ll always look for the best opportunity to grow the brand, but we’re not looking to sell the brand at all.”

Why Reebok Is Pushing Basketball

Reebok’s focus on basketball shouldn’t come as a surprise. Founded in 1958, the brand mainly sold tennis and running shoes for its first three decades, but struck gold in the late 1980s and early 1990s with innovative silhouettes like the Reebok Pump, Iverson’s signature Question and Answer shoes, and O’Neal’s Shaqnosis. The performance basketball sector is again having a moment in fashion for the first time in years and the brand knows that. It believes that success in this arena could mean success culturally, too.

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“There’s such a crossover between what’s happening in basketball and what’s happening in culture from a lifestyle perspective,” Robaire said. “If you think about when Reebok was at its best, we were disrupting the sports base in basketball and that reverberated across the brand.”

With that in mind, the brand has been intentional in its approach to the sport. It isn’t working to scoop up every athlete that becomes available on the market and give them a signature shoe deal. Part of that is due to the brand’s selectivity, but many of basketball’s superstars already have deals secured with bigger brands.

Reebok is in a position where it has to do more with less. That’s why the brand’s partnership with Angel Reese has worked so well, Krinsky said. The brand was able to dedicate more resources to the development of her signature shoe and put it on a “fast track.” Other brands in the marketplace are also using this playbook. Working with fewer athletes means dedicating more of the spotlight to establishing younger stars.

“When I want to go back and say, ‘Angel is popping right now. This could be a big opportunity — let’s accelerate it.’ We can all rally around that,” Krinksky said. “We don’t have the most, but we try to build icons.”

Whether basketball alone can propel Reebok to $10 billion in sales is an open question. Basketball shoe sales declined by five percent in 2024 and the market was down by 8 percent year-to-date in May 2025, according to Circana.

“I think Reebok can make a nice name for themselves in basketball. Certainly, Angel Reese is a hot property right now and that’s meaningful,” said Matt Powell, senior advisor at BCE consulting. “But the women’s basketball shoe business is very small compared to the men’s shoe business.”

The End Game

Despite the resources ABG is pouring into Reebok, there are still those out there who are sceptical about the company’s belief in sport and its commitment to Reebok. Count Williams among them.

“Historically, we know that ABG doesn’t invest in brands in that way,” Williams said. “They’re very much … figuring out how to get as much profit out as possible without doing much investment in innovation and new demand creation.”

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While Powell said questions about ABG’s intentions are fair, he said the company has a strong incentive to handle Reebok differently than its other brands.

“This is really the first thriving brand ABG has ever purchased,” Powell said. “It takes a different kind of management to run a thriving business rather than simply trying to squeeze the last bit out of a harvested brand.”

Robaire said Reebok is still charging ahead on sports overall as a category — not just basketball. That expansion is already underway. Reebok signed pro golfer Bryson DeChambeau in December and have launched golf footwear. The brand will also have a focus on “court sports,” Robaire said, including pickleball, padel and tennis. It will dive into soccer soon, which ties into an upcoming move for Reebok’s European headquarters back to London.

ABG has been focused on “the strategy of ‘Let Reebok be Reebok,” Robaire said. “Be unapologetically us and get back into these verticals.”

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West Virginia approves middle & high school athletes to make money through NIL

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West Virginia approves middle & high school athletes to make money through NIL


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Faking injuries will be punished

Recently, the rule changes in College Football have come in the form of off-the-field changes whether it’s to NIL, Revenue Sharing, the transfer portal, and more. As the 2025 College Football season approaches, many may not realize that several key changes were made to the rules between the white lines. The NCAA revisited some of […]

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Recently, the rule changes in College Football have come in the form of off-the-field changes whether it’s to NIL, Revenue Sharing, the transfer portal, and more. As the 2025 College Football season approaches, many may not realize that several key changes were made to the rules between the white lines.

The NCAA revisited some of the biggest issues of the 2024-25 College Football season and changed the rules to either add guidelines for the officials or close any potential loopholes that were exposed. Ahead of the season, every fan should learn about the following new rules that will be in effect for 2025.

Faking Injuries:

Last season, one of the biggest stories came when the SEC had to release what was quickly dubbed “The Lane Kiffin rule” as Ole Miss was blatantly faking injuries to get free timeouts. This season, if a player is “injured” after the ball is spotted by the officials, the team will be charged with a timeout and if the team is out of timeouts they will be given a delay of game penalty. Additionally, the player will have to remain out of the game for one snap even if a timeout is charged.

Overtime Timeouts:

When a game reaches overtime, each team will be granted one time out for the first overtime period and the second overtime period. Once the game reaches the point where they go back and forth attempting 2 point conversions, the team will be granted only one timeout until the game ends. TV timeouts can and will take place after the first two overtime periods but, not during the third overtime period.

Instant Replay Verbiage:

In the past, a referee would declare that a call on the field “stands” if there wasn’t conclusive evidence or they would “confirm” the call if they had clear video evidence to back up the call. The officials will now eliminate both words from their vocabulary and use the term “upheld” if the call stands.

T Signal on Kickoffs:

During Bowl Season, South Carolina and Illinois got into a massive disagreement when Bret Bielema felt that the Gamecocks kick returner used the T-Signal than returned the ball which typically indicates touchback. Now after a player uses the “T-Signal” there will be no return.

Pre-snap Movement:

Defensive Linemen are now prohibited from making any quick or “exaggerated” movement that interfere with offensive snap calls.

Disconcerting Signals:

A defensive player cannot use any words or signals that would indicate the play is going to begin in an effort to confuse the offense. The defense is given two designated words, “Stem” and “Move” while defensive players are no longer allowed to clap which is used by the offense.

Substitution Fouls by the Defense:

Last season, Dan Lanning found a loophole in the rule book and decided to play with more than 11 players during the final snap against the Ohio State Buckeyes as it cost the Ducks 5 yards but, allowed the game to end. Now, the officials will give the defense a 5-yard penalty while allowing the offense to decide if they’d like the clock to be reset to where it was when the ball was snapped with the clock starting again on the next snap.

Eye Shields:

While Football players love the look of a tinted visor, any company producing the visors must submit nearly clear visors to the NCAA for approval. Only Oakley and Nike have submitted and have been granted approval for the season.

Defenseless Players:

This season, any player attempting to recover a loose ball or a fumble is considered a defenseless player bringing some order to scrums for the football.

Unsportsmanlike Fouls:

Any player who simulates brandishing a weapon on the field in 2025 will be given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

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