Sen. Codey calls for repeal of ‘obsolete’ legislation
on athletes’ Name, Image, Likeness

• Gov. Murphy signed a bill in 2020 that would provide guidance on Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) and protect student-athletes.
• The N.J. law will not take effect for more than 2 years, and states across the country are taking more meaningful action every day.
• Failure to repeal a law that was well-intentioned but has proven obsolete puts N.J. student-athletes at a further disadvantage.

LIVINGSTON, New Jersey — State Sen. Richard J. Codey today called on the Legislature to repeal a law he voted to pass two years ago.

Codey, who also served as the state’s 53rd governor, said the “New Jersey Fair Play Act,” signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in September 2020, was a well-intentioned bill that has been rendered obsolete before it even takes effect.

The law, scheduled to go into practice in the fifth academic year after Murphy signed it, provides guidance on Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) to academic institutions in New Jersey, and provides protection for college athletes if they hire an attorney or agent in pursuit of NIL opportunities.

New Jersey was one of the first states to pass such legislation, ahead of a United States Supreme Court ruling. The Court’s decision in 2021 came sooner than some expected, and it upheld a lower court ruling that prevented the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) from restricting student-athletes from earning education-related compensation and benefits.

The ruling was hailed as a way to level the playing field and an important step toward getting a slice of the revenue generated by athletes into the pockets of those athletes, even if it set off something of a frenzy at certain institutions.

In New Jersey, Codey said, the ruling has created confusion and problems for athletic departments wanting to do the right thing. With no NCAA guidance and a state law two-plus years from taking effect, some administrators are unsure where to turn or what to allow. And that, Codey said, is why New Jersey needs to give those institutions the right to immediately chart their own course.

Several other states — including Nebraska, Illinois and Maryland — have repealed legislation or passed laws that allow their academic institutions to make and police their own policies.

“This issue belongs in the hands of the institutions,” Codey said. “They know the landscape in which they are competing. And let’s face it, the Rutgers football team and the Rutgers and Seton Hall basketball teams that compete at the highest levels of the NCAA have a very different situation than a junior college.”

Codey, who with 49 years is the Legislature’s longest-serving member, said he will introduce legislation that repeals the current law. He said he was particularly concerned that unauthorized NIL payments to players will dwarf abuses of the past 50-60 years in college sports without direct institutional oversight. Those abuses included illegal cash payments to players, free cars and jobs for family members.

Without oversight, Codey said, those abuses and others can be disguised as NIL programs.

“This will be worse if we don’t do something and get out of the way,” Codey said. “The institutions can’t wait; they must address this head-on. And we need to act before institutions in other states raid the rosters of New Jersey’s colleges. When that happens — and it will happen — it will be because our law sought to provide guidance but it only put a pair of handcuffs on athletes, coaches and administrators.”