US Education Department rescinds Biden guidance on student athlete compensation

(Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Education said on Wednesday it rescinded guidance issued by the administration of President Joe Biden that payments to college athletes through name, image and likeness deals should be shared equally between male and female competitors.

According to the department's Office for Civil Rights, the NIL guidance announced last month shortly before Donald Trump's return to the White House has no legal basis under the landmark 1972 Title IX legislation that outlawed sex-based discrimination.

"The NIL guidance, rammed through by the Biden Administration in its final days, is overly burdensome, profoundly unfair, and it goes well beyond what agency guidance is intended to achieve," Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a news release.

Days before Trump was sworn in for a second term as U.S. president, the Office for Civil Rights issued guidance that said NIL payments must be proportionate between male and female athletes to comply with Title IX.

On Wednesday, the office said the Biden administration claimed, "without a credible legal justification," that NIL agreements are akin to financial aid and must be proportionately distributed between male and female athletes under Title IX.

"Enacted over 50 years ago, Title IX says nothing about how revenue-generating athletics programs should allocate compensation among student-athletes," Trainor said.

"The claim that Title IX forces schools and colleges to distribute student-athlete revenues proportionately based on gender equity considerations is sweeping and would require clear legal authority to support it.

"That does not exist," Trainor said. "Accordingly, the Biden NIL guidance is rescinded."

(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

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