Department of Education says Title IX will apply to athlete revenue sharing

A Department of Education memo stated that the plans many major college athletic departments are making for how they will distribute new direct payments to their athletes "would violate Title IX law," according to Lavigne & Murphy of ESPN.com. The memo provides some "long-awaited guidance about how gender equity laws will apply to a new era of college sports that is on track to begin this summer." Some ADs have publicly shared that they "intend to provide upwards of 75%" of money shared with athletes "to their football players." However, the Office For Civil Rights -- the division of the Department of Education that enforces Title IX law -- in its memo Thursday said that those future payments "should be considered 'athletic financial assistance' and therefore must be shared proportionally between men and women athletes." The memo is "not as clear in providing guidance on how payments from booster collectives closely associated with their schools are impacted by Title IX law." But if money from private sources ends up "creating a disparity in an athletic program, it is possible that NIL agreements could 'trigger a school's Title IX obligations.'" The memo states that male and female athletes also "deserve equivalent publicity, including in sports information personnel, the amount and quality of promotion, and even in social media postings." It is "not clear if the U.S. Department of Education will interpret Title IX law the same way when incoming President Donald Trump's administration installs new officials in the near future" (ESPN.com, 1/16).