Ohio lawmakers pass bill limiting NIL contracts after cramming in several last-minute budget items

Ohio lawmakers passed a bill last week that would make sure name, image, and likeness deals end when a student athlete ends their collegiate career, but not before adding several last minute budget items to the bill. 

The Ohio House and the Senate passed Ohio House Bill 184 during marathon sessions last week.

Ohio Republican House Reps. Brian Stewart and Ty Mathews introduced the bill earlier this year, which now goes to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. 

The bill started out as legislation that prohibits a NIL contract from remaining in effect after a student athlete is done playing college sports. 

Former Ohio State Buckeyes wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. and Fanatics were involved in a legal dispute over a NIL deal after Fanatics claimed Harrison did not meet his obligation. 

“His NIL agreement continued on after his eligibility at college and went into when he was in the NFL,” said Ohio Sen. Nathan Manning, R-North Ridgeville.

“This simply just does not allow these agreements to go past your eligibility in college, and if it does do that, then it ceases to exist.” 

Ohio state Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, said he liked the NIL provisions in the bill. 

“When one of my football players is taken advantage of … there’s something we need to do about this,” he said.

“We can’t have these athletes be used and abused and taken advantage of.” 

Ohio state Rep. Munira Abdullahi, D-Columbus, said it is important to protect student-athletes. 

“When a kid shows up to college as a star recruit there are agents waiting to lock them into contracts that drain money from them for years,” she said. 

Several last minute additions were added to the bill including transferring $40 million from the general revenue fund to go toward the post-traumatic stress fund for first responders; changing the funding formula for nursing home payments from the state; and paying publicly funded child care based on attendance instead of enrollment, among other additions. 

“This does not necessarily mark the end of budget corrections,” Ohio state Sen. Jerry Cirino R-Kirtland, said. 

Lawmakers in both chambers on both sides of the aisles criticized not having much time to look over all the changes made to the bill. 

“I’m not a big fan of these Christmas tree bills,” DeMora said. “I think too much stuff is crammed into it at late hours, and we don’t get to see it all.”

Ohio state Sen. George Lang, R-West Chester, said the changes happened last minute. 

“I truly didn’t have time to vet it,” he said. 

Ohio state Sen. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, was the only senator to vote against the bill last week. 

“I have major concerns with the process that’s being conducted here in this chamber,” he said. “Maybe the policy is good, maybe it’s bad. I can’t tell you one way or another, because, well, frankly, we haven’t had any true eyes on it. … I’m going to have to vote no on a very good bill.”

Rep. Abdullahi said she reluctantly voted f0r the bill.

“(Changes) were dropped at the eleventh hour and they affect hundreds of millions of your tax dollars,” she said.

“We’re using what was once a good, simple, common sense bill to quietly move hundreds of millions of dollars while Ohioans are not looking. If anyone else did this would be calling it money laundering, but when we do it, it’s a budget correction bill.”

State Rep. Cecil Thomas, D-Cincinnati, and four Republicans state Reps. Levi Dean, Jason Stephens, Jennifer Gross, and Michelle Teska voted against the bill. 

Many lawmakers voiced support for the post-traumatic stress fund for first responders. 

“I wish it was more money,” DeMora said. “I wish it was over more years, but I will certainly settle for the $40 million one time placement of this money into that fund.”

The average person sees one to three traumatic events in their lifetime while first responders see an average of 11 traumatic things a month, said state Sen. Thomas Patton, R-Strongsville. 

“They’re seeing the very, very worst things we can’t possibly imagine,” he said. 

Democratic state Rep. Erika White’s husband is a firefighter in the Toledo area. 

“I’ve watched him carry home the kind of pain that no one sees,” she said. “… (Post-traumatic stress) doesn’t end when the siren stops. It follows them into our homes, to our marriages, in our daily lives.” 

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This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal. View the original article.