Republicans in the Legislature appear to be fast-tracking a questionable bill to aid the University of Wisconsin System in making NIL payments to athletes.
Legislative Republicans have introduced a bill to help the University of Wisconsin System make “Name, Image, and Likeness” (NIL) payments to student-athletes, but conservatives are raising the alarm over the measure’s handout to UW-Madison.
According to a circulation memo obtained by The Heartland Post, the bill “establishes rules and regulations for UW System institutions as it relates to NIL and student athletes” using “polices that have been implemented by the UW System and UW-Madison and places them into state statutes.”
These include disclosure rules for student-athletes and a prohibition on agreements that violate UW System policies. Also included, however, is an exemption to open records requests regarding these deals.
The Legislative Reference Bureau’s analysis of the proposal finds that it contains “an exemption from the open records law for records in the custody of the board, an institution, or other formally constituted subunit of the board relating to 1) any term or detail of an agreement or proposed agreement for the use of a student-athlete’s name, image, or likeness; or 2) generation, deployment, or allocation of revenue generated by an intercollegiate athletic program that are the subject of reasonable efforts under the circumstances to maintain the secrecy of the records, when competitive reasons require confidentiality.”
Supporters contend that this would shield state schools from poaching by rival universities who could file open records requests for athletes’ deals and then top them as a means of luring top talent away from UW schools in the transfer portal.
The measure also eliminates the current requirement that UW-Madison pays 40 percent of its intercollegiate athletic facilites maintenance debt from program revenues and instead appropriates $14.6 million in general purpose revenue for this maintenance.
An additional $200,000 each year would be appropriated for debt service related to maintenance of the UW–Milwaukee Klotsche Center and another $200,000 annually for maintenance of UW–Green Bay’s soccer complex.
Both the open records exemption and the annual appropriation have raised eyebrows inside the Capitol, with one Republican lawmaker telling the Heartland Post that it is an “unearned gift to UW-Madison.”
“Why are we giving them $15 million per year after what they pulled on DEI?” the legislator asked. “This is ridiculous.”
In 2023, the UW System refused to accept the Republican-controlled Legislature’s terms on state funding, blocking for six months efforts to dismantle schools’ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) departments and programs.
Eventually, UW System leadership accepted the proposal, only to see the Board of Regents reject in in a surprise vote. Under heavy pressure, the the Board reversed course and agreed to the deal. However, UW-Madison did not end its DEI department until last July, and even then merely transferred its employees to other departments.
