Protecting Name, Image, and Likeness Rights for Florida College & Professional Athletes

A Florida athlete’s name, image and likeness is now a business asset worth protecting with the same tools brands use: trademark registrations, publicity rights and well-drafted contracts. College athletes can be paid directly by their schools under the House v. NCAA settlement, sign third-party endorsement deals, and build personal brands that follow them into professional careers. Professional athletes in Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville already compete in a crowded market for endorsements and merchandise. In both settings, the athlete who owns and registers their marks controls the brand, but the one who doesn’t often finds someone else selling it.

This article explains the current NIL regulatory scheme, the NCAA and College Sports Commission rules Florida college athletes must follow, the federal and Florida protections available for an athlete’s name and brand, and five steps we recommend every Florida athlete take.

Key takeaways

• Division I schools that opted into the House settlement can share up to about $21.58 million with athletes in 2026-27. Third-party NIL deals sit outside that cap but must be reported through NIL Go when worth $600 or more.
• There is still no federal NIL statute. The Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act on September 28, 2026, but House action is uncertain.
• Florida’s NIL statute, §1006.74, Fla. Stat., now mainly guarantees the right to profit from NIL and requires financial literacy workshops, but most of its 2021 restrictions were repealed in 2023.
• A federal trademark registration is the strongest tool for protecting an athlete’s name, nickname, logo or catchphrase nationwide. The USPTO launched an NIL resource page in July 2026.
• Florida’s right-of-publicity statute, §540.08, Fla. Stat., lets athletes stop unauthorized commercial use of their name or likeness and recover a reasonable royalty and punitive damages.

The NIL regulatory scheme in 2026

NIL for college athletes is governed by a court settlement and a private enforcement body, not by a federal statute. Four layers apply to a Florida college athlete at once: federal law and executive action, the House settlement and the College Sports Commission, NCAA and conference rules, and Florida law and school policy.

1. Federal law and executive action. Congress has not enacted an NIL statute. The House’s SCORE Act cleared committee in July 2025 but was pulled before a floor vote. On September 28, 2026, the Senate passed the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act (S. 4668) 77-22. It would create a national NIL framework that preempts conflicting state NIL laws, give the NCAA and conferences a limited antitrust exemption, cap agent fees at 5%, and require reporting of NIL deals over $600. House passage before year-end is considered unlikely. In the meantime, Executive Order 14322 (July 24, 2025) and Executive Order 14400 (April 3, 2026) direct federal agencies to reinforce rules on transfers, eligibility and pay-for-play, including by reviewing schools’ eligibility for federal grants.
2. The House settlement and the College Sports Commission. Since July 1, 2025, Division I schools that opted into the House v. NCAA settlement may pay athletes directly. The independent College Sports Commission (CSC) enforces the settlement’s rules on revenue sharing, third-party NIL deals and roster limits. Schools report payments through the College Athlete Payment System (CAPS) and athletes report outside deals through NIL Go. In the first year, 307 schools shared $1.8 billion with 34,915 athletes.
3. NCAA and conference rules. NCAA bylaws still govern eligibility, recruiting and transfers. They prohibit pay-for-play and improper inducements, and conferences may add their own requirements. The specific rules are covered in the next section.
4. Florida law and school policy. Florida’s NIL statute, §1006.74, Fla. Stat., declares that intercollegiate athletes must have an equal opportunity to control and profit from the commercial use of their name, image and likeness and be protected from unauthorized appropriation. It applies to state universities, Florida College System institutions and private colleges receiving state aid. It requires each school to provide at least two financial literacy, life skills and entrepreneurship workshops of at least five hours before an athlete graduates, and shields schools and coaches from liability for routine athletic decisions that affect an athlete’s NIL earnings.

The 2023 amendments (ch. 2023-4) repealed most of Florida’s original 2021 restrictions, including the requirement that pay be commensurate with market value and limits on school involvement in deals. Athlete agents remain regulated under §468.453, Fla. Stat. A State University System task force is studying further changes, including closer oversight of agents and a proposal to place part of athletes’ NIL income in professionally managed trusts.

Each school also has its own NIL policy covering disclosure, conflicts with team sponsors and use of school marks. Athletes should read it before signing anything.

NCAA and College Sports Commission Guidelines

The practical rules for a Florida Division I athlete now come from the House settlement as enforced by the College Sports Commission, layered on top of NCAA eligibility bylaws.

Rule	What it requires
Revenue-sharing cap	Up to about $21.58 million per opted-in school in 2026-27, based on 22% of average Power Five revenue and rising at least 4% a year
What counts against the cap	School-paid NIL and revenue-share payments, including through school designees; third-party NIL payments do not count
School reporting	Schools report each payment in CAPS within five business days of final signature
Third-party deal reporting	Every Division I athlete, at opted-in schools or not, reports third-party NIL deals worth $600 or more through NIL Go
Deal review standard	NIL Go checks whether a deal uses the athlete’s NIL for a valid business purpose and pays within a reasonable range of compensation
Smaller deals	Since July 2026, deals of $600 to $15,000 skip range-of-compensation review until an athlete’s associated deals reach $50,000 in a year
Enforcement	The CSC can impose penalties including postseason bans and cap restrictions; disputed deal denials can go to arbitration

Deals with boosters and collectives get the closest look. NIL Go concentrates on payments from “associated” entities, such as collectives and boosters, because those are the deals most likely to be disguised pay-for-play. Through August 2026, NIL Go had cleared 46,478 deals worth $582.49 million and declined 2,296 deals worth $156.93 million. An athlete whose deal is not cleared may lose the payment or face eligibility consequences, so deals should be documented as genuine marketing arrangements with real deliverables.

NCAA bylaws still apply. Compensation may not be contingent on enrollment at a particular school or on athletic performance, and NIL may not be used as a recruiting inducement. Athletes must also stay within their school’s and conference’s rules on sponsor conflicts.

Revenue-share agreements are NIL licenses. When a school pays an athlete under the settlement, the agreement typically grants the school rights to use the athlete’s NIL and may restrict the athlete’s deals in competing product categories. Before signing, an athlete should understand exactly which rights are granted, for how long, and whether the school receives any rights in the athlete’s personal marks. That last point is where trademark planning and NIL contracting meet.

NIL by the numbers

The “average” college athlete earns far less from NIL than the headlines suggest, because a small group of football and basketball players at Power Four schools take most of the money. Opendorse now estimates the total college athlete compensation market, revenue sharing plus NIL, at $4.5 billion for 2026-27, up from its earlier $2.8 billion projection.

Metric	Figure
Revenue-sharing paid by schools, 2025-26	$1.8 billion to 34,915 athletes at 307 schools
Average revenue-share payment per paid athlete	About $51,550 (our calculation from the CSC totals)
Third-party deals cleared by NIL Go, through Aug. 2026	46,478 deals worth $582.49 million
Average cleared NIL Go deal	About $12,530 (our calculation)
Average Division I NIL deal, all sports	$6,200
Average non-revenue-sport deal	$300 to $1,000; men’s tennis leads Olympic sports at $2,700
Average men’s basketball deal	Nearly $14,000 per deal
Average Power Four starting quarterback	About $1.5 million a year
Highest-paid position outside football and men’s basketball	Power Four women’s basketball forward, about $137,500 a year
Commercial (non-school) NIL per program	$13.5 million at the average Power Four school vs. $173,000 in the Group of Six
Division II, III, NAIA and junior college	About $50 per NIL activity; $25 million market in total

Where the revenue-share dollar goes. At the average school in the top ten FBS conferences in 2025-26, football received $13.1 million (63.8%), men’s basketball $4.3 million (20.9%), women’s basketball $1.6 million (8%), and all other sports combined $1.5 million (7.3%).

Averages overstate what most athletes receive. Opendorse’s data are skewed by a few seven-figure contracts, and many athletes, particularly outside football, basketball and the Power Four, earn little or nothing from NIL. For the typical Florida athlete, the realistic value of NIL is local deals, social media work, camps and merchandise, which is exactly where personal trademarks matter most.

Schools with the most NIL money

Neither the College Sports Commission nor the NCAA publishes NIL deal counts by school, so the best available comparison is estimated dollars. On The Sideline’s index, the top 25 programs hold about a third of a $4.20 billion Division I market, and football is roughly 58% of the total. These are independent estimates, not reported payrolls. Florida State and UCF fall outside the top 25 on this index.

Beyond football: where other sports get paid

Most schools pay outside football in one or two “second” sports, usually men’s basketball, and only a handful invest heavily in a women’s or Olympic sport. LSU, one of the first schools to announce a plan, split its first-year cap 75% football, 15% men’s basketball, 5% women’s basketball and 5% for all remaining sports. Ohio State said only football, men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball would receive revenue share in 2025-26; Washington limited it to football, both basketball programs, gymnastics and softball; Minnesota included volleyball and hockey.

The estimates below show which programs lead each sport outside football. They are The Sideline’s modeled market values, combining revenue share and third-party NIL, as of October 13, 2026, not confirmed payroll.

Sport	Programs with the largest estimated NIL markets
Men’s basketball	Kentucky $15.8M, Indiana $14.1M, Louisville $13.9M, Florida $13.6M, Miami (FL) $13.5M
Baseball	Texas A&M $7.8M, Texas $6.8M, Miami (FL) $6.4M, LSU $5.8M, Mississippi State $4.8M
Women’s basketball	LSU $6.0M, South Carolina $5.0M, Texas $5.0M, Notre Dame $5.0M, Ohio State $4.0M, USC $4.0M
Softball	Oklahoma $4.8M, Texas Tech $3.8M
Gymnastics	Alabama $3.6M
Track and field	Oregon $2.9M, Miami (FL) $1.3M
Volleyball	Nebraska $2.5M, Miami (FL) $1.1M
Hockey	Michigan $1.2M

Three patterns stand out:

• Basketball schools. At Kentucky and Louisville, men’s basketball is about a third of the estimated market, and at South Carolina women’s basketball ($5.0M) is estimated above men’s ($3.0M). South Carolina already spent more on Dawn Staley’s program than on men’s basketball before revenue sharing.
• Signature Olympic programs. Schools invest where they win or sell tickets: softball at Oklahoma and Texas Tech, gymnastics at Alabama, volleyball at Nebraska, track at Oregon.
• Women’s sports are growing but small. Opendorse expected 8% to 12% of revenue-share dollars to go to women’s sports in 2025-26, and projected women’s athletes to earn $417.8 million in combined revenue share and NIL, rising above $663 million by 2028.

Florida’s two Power Four leaders spread money widely. Miami’s estimated $25.9 million outside football includes men’s basketball ($13.5M), baseball ($6.4M), track ($1.3M), volleyball ($1.1M) and women’s soccer ($0.95M). Florida’s estimated $21.6 million outside football is led by men’s basketball ($13.6M), baseball ($2.9M) and softball ($1.2M). For athletes in those sports, NIL is real money, and a personal brand worth protecting.

Federal Trademark Protection

NIL rights and trademark rights overlap, but they are not the same thing. Publicity law protects the person. Trademark law protects a name, logo or phrase once it identifies the source of goods or services. A federal registration turns an athlete’s brand into a nationwide, enforceable asset. In July 2026, the USPTO launched an NIL resource page explaining that a legal name, nickname, voice, catchphrase, image or other personal identifier may be registrable when it functions as a trademark or service mark.

What athletes can register.

Brand element	Typical classes	Watch out for
Full name or professional name	25 (apparel), 35 (endorsement and promotional services), 41 (appearances, camps, entertainment)	A surname alone may be refused as primarily merely a surname without proof of acquired distinctiveness
Nickname	25, 35, 41	Must point to the athlete, not just describe a skill
Personal logo or signature	25, 9 (digital goods), 28 (sports equipment, trading cards)	Must not borrow school, team or league design elements
Catchphrase or celebration	25, 41	Slogans used only as decoration on shirts draw “ornamental” or “failure to function” refusals
Jersey number with name or initials	25	Numbers alone are rarely distinctive; school and league rules may control uniform elements

How the law protects athletes from others. Section 2(c) of the Lanham Act bars registration of a mark that identifies a particular living individual without that person’s written consent. An athlete can therefore oppose or block a stranger’s application to register the athlete’s name or well-known nickname. Section 2(a) bars marks that falsely suggest a connection with a person. Section 43(a) gives athletes a federal claim for false endorsement against anyone who uses their identity in a way that implies sponsorship, even without a registration.

What registration adds. A registration provides nationwide priority from the filing date, constructive notice, a legal presumption of ownership and validity, the right to use the ® symbol, the ability to record the mark with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to stop counterfeit imports, and access to statutory damages against counterfeiters. It also makes licensing deals easier, because a brand partner can see exactly what it is licensing.

Timing. An intent-to-use application can be filed before merchandise or services launch, reserving priority while the athlete’s profile grows. Filing early matters: high-profile athletes, including Paige Bueckers with PAIGE BUCKETS, filed within days of NIL rules taking effect, yet not every athlete application has registered. Clearance searching and careful identification of goods and services reduce that risk.

Florida state protections

Florida gives athletes three tools that work alongside federal registration: a state trademark registry, a statutory right of publicity, and consumer-protection law.

Florida trademark registration (Chapter 495). Under Florida’s Registration and Protection of Trademarks Act, anyone who uses a mark in Florida may register it with the Department of State. Florida registration is faster and less expensive than federal registration, but it requires existing use in Florida and protects only within the state. It is a useful supplement for an athlete selling merchandise or running camps locally, or a stopgap while a federal application is pending. Chapter 495 also provides an injunction remedy against dilution of marks that are famous in Florida.

Florida’s right of publicity (§540.08). Section 540.08, Fla. Stat. prohibits publishing, printing, displaying or otherwise publicly using a living person’s name, portrait, photograph or other likeness for trade, commercial or advertising purposes without that person’s express consent. The athlete, or anyone the athlete has authorized in writing to license their name or likeness, can sue to:

• stop the unauthorized use with an injunction;
• recover damages, including a reasonable royalty; and
• seek punitive or exemplary damages.

The statute exempts bona fide news reporting that is not used for advertising, so a newspaper photo of a game is not actionable, while the same photo in a car dealer’s ad is. Rights continue for 40 years after death. Florida also recognizes a common-law misappropriation claim. Unlike trademark law, §540.08 does not require that the athlete’s name function as a brand, so it protects lesser-known athletes as well as stars.

Consumer-protection law. The Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (Chapter 501, Part II) reaches businesses that falsely imply an athlete’s endorsement or sell counterfeit athlete merchandise to Florida consumers.

School marks belong to the school. Florida’s universities hold registered trademarks in their names, logos, mascots and uniforms. An athlete may not use them in a personal deal, on personal merchandise or in a personal logo without a license, and most school NIL policies say so expressly. The cleanest personal brands are built so they can stand apart from any school or team.

Professional Athletes: What Changes After College

Professional athletes keep their individual NIL rights, but they share them with a league, a team and a player’s association. Florida is home to teams in every major league, so these overlapping rights shape most local endorsement deals.

• Group licensing. Players associations, such as the NFLPA, NBPA, MLBPA and NHLPA, generally hold the right to license players’ names and likenesses as a group, for example in video games and trading cards. Individual players keep the right to license themselves alone. An athlete’s personal deals should be drafted so they do not cross into group-licensing territory.
• Team and league marks. Uniforms, logos, team names and league marks belong to the team or league. Standard player contracts also let the team use the player’s likeness to promote the team. A personal endorsement cannot show the athlete in uniform without the team’s or league’s permission.
• Carrying the brand forward. A nickname or logo registered in college carries into a pro career, provided the athlete, not a collective or school, owns it. Athletes should check that no college agreement granted lasting rights in their personal marks.
• Ownership structure. Many professionals hold their marks in a personal brand company that licenses them to sponsors. This keeps the asset in one place, simplifies licensing, and keeps endorsement income organized.
• Digital likeness. Unauthorized AI-generated images, voice clones and deepfake endorsements are a growing threat. Florida’s §540.08 already reaches unauthorized commercial uses of a person’s likeness, and false-endorsement claims under Section 43(a) may apply when the use implies sponsorship.

Five key recommendations for Florida athletes

1. Register your core marks federally, early. Identify the one or two brand elements that will matter most, usually your name or nickname and a personal logo. Clear them, then file intent-to-use applications at the USPTO in the classes you will actually use, typically apparel (Class 25), promotional and endorsement services (Class 35) and camps or appearances (Class 41). Add a Florida registration under Chapter 495 once you are selling in the state.
2. Own your brand yourself, not through a collective, school or agent. File applications in your own name or in a company you control. Read every revenue-share agreement, collective deal and agency contract for clauses that assign or exclusively license your name, nickname or logo, and limit any license to a defined term, territory and use. Your marks should leave with you when you transfer schools or turn pro.
3. Make every college deal compliant before you sign. Report third-party deals worth $600 or more through NIL Go, follow your school’s NIL policy, and make sure each deal has real deliverables at a defensible price. A deal the College Sports Commission does not clear can cost you the money and your eligibility. Use only an agent who complies with Florida’s athlete-agent law, and do not use school or team logos without a written license.
4. Monitor and enforce. Set up watch notices for new USPTO and Florida filings that use your name or nickname, and scan online marketplaces for unlicensed merchandise. Oppose third-party applications under Section 2(c), send takedown notices, and use §540.08 against businesses that use your image in advertising without consent. Recording your federal registration with Customs helps stop counterfeit imports.
5. Plan for the next stage now. Choose marks that will work in a professional career and after it. Understand how a players association’s group-licensing program and team contracts will affect your personal deals. Track the Protect College Sports Act, because a federal statute could preempt parts of Florida law and change reporting, agent and transfer rules.

The Bottom Line

NIL money now flows to Florida athletes from schools, sponsors and collectives, but the rules governing it are still settling, and Congress may yet rewrite them. What will not change is the value of owning your brand. A federal trademark registration, backed by a Florida registration and the protections of §540.08, gives an athlete control over who profits from their name, both in college and in the pros.

If you are a Florida college or professional athlete, a parent or an athlete representative, contact our office at [email protected] or call 305-374-8303 to review your NIL agreements and build a trademark strategy for your personal brand.