The law
Colorado's college NIL law is C.R.S. § 23-16-301 (status: in force). Everything on this page is taken from the enacted text on the legislature's own site, linked under Sources, read on October 21, 2026.
What it says
| Question | What the statute says | Section or source |
|---|---|---|
| Who is covered | A "student athlete" is an individual who engages in or is eligible to engage in an intercollegiate sport for an "institution", meaning a public or private institution of higher education in Colorado. Since 2025-03-28 the term "does not mean an individual who engages in a high school sport" | 23-16-301(1)(e), (1)(g) |
| Disclosure to the school | Not addressed since 2025-03-28. H.B. 25-1041 repealed § 23-16-301(3)(b), which had required disclosure of an NIL contract to the athletic director within 72 hours or before the next scheduled athletic event, "as supported by the institution's policy". Disclosure now comes from school policy and, for Division I, NCAA Bylaw 22.2.2 (third-party deals of $600 or more reported to the NCAA's designated NIL clearinghouse) | 23-16-301(3) (repealed) |
| Banned categories | Not addressed. The statute lists no barred product categories | None |
| Conflicts with team contracts | Not addressed since 2025-03-28. The repealed § 23-16-301(3)(a), (c) and (d) had barred deals that conflict with a team contract, required the school to name the conflicting provisions, and barred team contracts signed on or after 2023-01-01 from stopping NIL use outside official team activities | 23-16-301(3) (repealed) |
| School and coach involvement | A school may identify, create, solicit, facilitate and otherwise enable NIL opportunities for an athlete once it has the athlete's consent, and tells the athlete of a solicitation within 72 hours. A 501(c)(3) charity that is not a school may pay athletes for NIL. Schools may sponsor on-campus agent interviews, and athletes may meet an athlete advisor elsewhere. Coaches are not named | 23-16-301(2)(d), (5.5); 23-16-106 |
| Direct pay from the school | "An institution or a collegiate athletic association may provide compensation to a student athlete for the use of the student athlete's name, image, or likeness" (since 2025-03-28). The earlier ban on schools and associations paying current or prospective athletes was struck. Each school sends the Department of Higher Education a copy of its annual athletics report, including revenue sharing payments when required, by January 15 each year from 2026; the department posts the reports | 23-16-301(2)(c.5), (7) |
| Agents and attorneys | A school or collegiate athletic association may not prevent an athlete from obtaining professional representation on contracts or legal matters, including an "athlete advisor" (anyone who negotiates or solicits NIL pay for the athlete) and an attorney. Anyone giving legal representation is a licensed attorney. Colorado's Uniform Athlete Agents Act (Part 2) has had no registration requirement since 2010; it still sets the agency contract form and warning, 72-hour notice to the athletic director and a 14-day cancellation right | 23-16-301(1)(a), (1)(b), (2)(c), (4); 23-16-209 to 23-16-211 |
| High school and minors | High school athletes are excluded from "student athlete". An individual under 18 "must be represented in any negotiation by a parent or guardian", and the minor and the parent or guardian may also be represented by an attorney or other competent representative | 23-16-301(1)(g), (2)(c) |
| Financial literacy | Not addressed | None |
| Scholarship protection | Earning NIL pay "does not affect the student athlete's scholarship eligibility", and a school may not revoke a scholarship because the athlete receives compensation or obtains professional or legal representation | 23-16-301(2)(a), (5) |
| Confidentiality of contracts | The records custodian denies inspection of personally identifiable information in an agreement or contract concerning a student athlete's or prospective student athlete's NIL, or in related communications or material: name, address, email, phone, birth date, the license fee paid to the athlete, card information or Social Security number. Records stay available to the "person in interest". The rest of a contract is not covered by this exemption | 24-72-204(3)(a)(XXV) |
| NCAA and conference penalties | An athletic association (including the NCAA and conferences) may not prevent an athlete from earning NIL pay or keep a school from intercollegiate athletics because an athlete receives it. A school may not uphold a rule that prevents a student athlete from earning NIL pay, "except as may be required by the rules or requirements of an athletic association of which an institution is a member" (H.B. 25-1041 kept this carve-out) | 23-16-301(1)(c), (2)(a), (2)(b) |
| Remedies and enforcement | A school or association policy that does not comport with Part 3 "is void and unenforceable", and an athlete aggrieved by a school's or association's action in violation of Part 3 may bring an action for injunctive relief | 23-16-301(6) |
| Employee status | Not addressed | None |
What H.B. 25-1041 changed in 2025
H.B. 25-1041 carried a safety clause and took effect when Governor Polis signed it on 2025-03-28 (the signed act shows "Friday March 28th 2025 at 1:15 pm"). It removed more than it added:
- Repealed: all of § 23-16-301(3): the bar on deals that conflict with a team contract, the 72-hour disclosure to the athletic director, the school's duty to name conflicting provisions, and the rule that team contracts signed after 2023-01-01 could not stop NIL use outside official team activities. It also repealed the old definition of "student" in (1)(f).
- Rewritten: § 23-16-301(2)(c), which until then barred both schools and athletic associations from providing compensation to a current or prospective student athlete. It now says a school or collegiate athletic association may not prevent professional representation, and that an athlete under 18 is represented by a parent or guardian in any negotiation.
- Added: school and association pay (§ 23-16-301(2)(c.5)), the annual athletics report to the Department of Higher Education (§ 23-16-301(7)), and the open-records exemption for personal information in NIL agreements (§ 24-72-204(3)(a)(XXV)).
Free statute mirrors that still print subsection (3) are showing the pre-2025 text.
Athlete advisors and agents in Colorado
Colorado has two overlapping sets of rules. Part 3 uses its own term, "athlete advisor": anyone who signs an "advisory contract" to negotiate or solicit NIL pay for an athlete, or recruits an athlete into one, but not a spouse, parent, sibling, grandparent or guardian (§ 23-16-301(1)(a), (b)). Part 2, the Uniform Athlete Agents Act (2008), covers agency contracts for professional-sports-services and endorsement contracts; H.B. 10-1128 (L. 2010, ch. 172, in force 2010-04-29) repealed its registration sections and its 2014 sunset, so Colorado has no agent registry. Part 2 still requires the bold warning, notice to the athletic director within 72 hours or before the next scheduled athletic event, and a 14-day right to cancel (§§ 23-16-209 to 23-16-211), makes inducements and false promises a class 2 misdemeanor (§ 23-16-214), and lets the attorney general or a district attorney seek an injunction and a civil penalty of up to $25,000 (§§ 23-16-215(f), 23-16-216).
The University of Colorado and S. 4668
On 2026-06-15, University of Colorado President Todd Saliman and CU Boulder Chancellor Justin Schwartz wrote to Senators Cruz, Cantwell, Schmitt and Coons in "strong support" of the Protect College Sports Act, saying it "creates consistency by superseding the patchwork of over 30 state laws". The letter is the university's position, not Colorado law; § 23-16-301 stays in force unless Congress enacts a law that preempts it.
How it changed
| Act | What it did | Effective |
|---|---|---|
| S.B. 20-123 (L. 2020, ch. 35, approved 2020-03-20) | added Part 3 to Article 16 of Title 23 (§ 23-16-301): schools may not uphold rules that stop NIL pay, associations may not bench athletes or schools over it, neither schools nor associations may pay athletes, athlete advisors and attorneys allowed, deals may not conflict with team contracts, 72-hour disclosure to the athletic director, no scholarship revocation, void policies and injunctive relief; also amended § 23-16-106 so athletes may meet athlete advisors off campus; originally effective 2023-01-01 | 2021-07-01 |
| H.B. 21-1328 (approved 2021-06-28, safety clause) | moved S.B. 20-123's effective date from 2023-01-01 to 2021-07-01 | 2021-06-28 |
| S.B. 23-293 (L. 2023, ch. 407, approved 2023-06-06) | added § 23-16-301(2)(d) (a school may identify, create, solicit and facilitate NIL opportunities with the athlete's consent and tell the athlete of a solicitation within 72 hours) and (5.5) (a 501(c)(3) charity that is not a school may pay athletes for NIL); made the 72-hour disclosure rule "as supported by the institution's policy" | 2023-08-07 |
| H.B. 25-1041 (L. 2025, ch. 38, approved 2025-03-28, safety clause) | repealed § 23-16-301(1)(f) and all of subsection (3) (team-contract conflicts, the 72-hour disclosure rule, conflict notice, team contracts allowing NIL outside team activities); ended the ban on school and association pay and added (2)(c.5) (a school or collegiate athletic association may pay athletes for NIL); redefined "student athlete" to exclude high school athletes; required a parent or guardian to represent an athlete under 18 in any negotiation; added (7) (annual athletics report to the Department of Higher Education from 2026-01-15); added C.R.S. § 24-72-204(3)(a)(XXV), withholding personally identifiable information in NIL agreements from open-records inspection | 2025-03-28 |
Federal law
As of 2026-10-21, S. 4668 (Protect College Sports Act) passed the Senate 77-22 on 2026-09-28 and has been held at the House desk since 2026-10-05, with no House action; it is not law. If enacted as passed, § 121(a)(2) reaches state laws that govern, regulate or invalidate school, conference or association rules on NIL compensation (except as necessary to comply with the bill), transfers or the eligibility rules in § 113. On its text, that appears to describe Colorado's bars on athletic associations (§ 23-16-301(2)(b)), the rule against schools upholding limits on NIL pay (§ 23-16-301(2)(a)) and the void-policy and injunction remedy (§ 23-16-301(6)); the representation rule in § 23-16-301(2)(c) matches the bill's own § 101(d). § 121(b)(1) keeps, unless they conflict with § 121(a), Uniform Athlete Agent Acts (Colorado's Part 2 is titled the "Uniform Athlete Agents Act", § 23-16-201) and state contract and privacy law; whether the open-records exemption in § 24-72-204(3)(a)(XXV) counts as a law relating to privacy is not settled by the text. School pay under § 23-16-301(2)(c.5) matches § 101(c), subject to the revenue share cap in § 114. S. 4668 would add, only for athletes at schools whose primary membership is in NCAA Division I (§ 101(b)(5)), a duty to report the terms of any deal over $600 to the school and the association or its designated entity within 5 days of signing, and pay over $600 not already reported within 30 days of receiving it (§ 101(b)(1)); and, through § 102's changes to SPARTA, a 5% cap on agent fees for endorsement contracts and a rule that such agents "register with a State" (new SPARTA § 9(a)). Colorado has had no agent registration since H.B. 10-1128 (L. 2010, ch. 172); SPARTA § 9(b) would count an agent registered with a professional league or players association, or registered under a uniform agent act "in the State in which the agent operates".
What sits on top of it
- Division I reporting. Third-party deals of $600 or more go to NIL Go within five business days, whatever the state's own rule (NIL Go, reporting a deal, level by level).
- Your school. A school can set a stricter policy than the statute, and most set the disclosure process.
- Agents. Colorado's athlete-agent rules are on the state-by-state registration table.
- High school. High school NIL in Colorado is set by the state's athletic association, not this statute.
- Taxes. NIL taxes in plain words.
How Leave fits
In Leave, every deal thread carries a rules summary for the athlete's state and level, and keeps the contract, its dates and the disclosure deadline that applies. It is a summary, not a ruling; the school and the statute decide. Leave is software, not an agent, and takes 0% of any deal. You decide, you send.
Questions about college NIL law in Colorado
What is Colorado's NIL law in 2026?
C.R.S. § 23-16-301, enacted by S.B. 20-123 and in force since 2021-07-01, amended by S.B. 23-293 (2023-08-07) and H.B. 25-1041 (2025-03-28). Since H.B. 25-1041, Colorado colleges and collegiate athletic associations may pay athletes for NIL, the 72-hour disclosure rule and the team-contract conflict ban are repealed, athletes under 18 are represented in negotiations by a parent or guardian, and personally identifiable information in NIL agreements is withheld from open-records requests.
Can Colorado colleges pay athletes directly?
Yes, under state law since 2025-03-28. C.R.S. § 23-16-301(2)(c.5), added by H.B. 25-1041, says an institution or a collegiate athletic association may provide compensation to a student athlete for the use of the athlete's name, image or likeness. Until then, § 23-16-301(2)(c) barred schools and associations from paying current or prospective athletes. A 501(c)(3) charity that is not a school may also pay athletes (§ 23-16-301(5.5)).
Do I have to tell my school about an NIL deal in Colorado?
State law no longer says so. H.B. 25-1041 repealed § 23-16-301(3)(b), which required disclosing an NIL contract to the athletic director within 72 hours or before the next scheduled athletic event. Some free statute mirrors still show that subsection; the signed act on leg.colorado.gov shows it repealed as of 2025-03-28. Reporting now comes from school policy and, for Division I athletes, NCAA Bylaw 22.2.2 (third-party deals of $600 or more reported to the NCAA's designated NIL clearinghouse). An athlete who signs an agency contract with an agent still informs the athletic director within 72 hours or before the next athletic event, whichever comes first, under § 23-16-210(b).
Does Colorado require an NIL agent to be licensed?
No state registration exists. Colorado repealed athlete agent registration in 2010 (H.B. 10-1128, L. 2010, ch. 172, approved and in force 2010-04-29, repealing §§ 23-16-204 to 23-16-208). Anyone who gives an athlete legal representation is a licensed attorney (§ 23-16-301(4)), and an agency contract follows the Uniform Athlete Agents Act: a signed record with fees, services and duration, a printed warning, 72-hour notice to the athletic director and a 14-day right to cancel (§§ 23-16-209 to 23-16-211). Part 1 adds that the contract lists any guarantees and carries a second warning (§ 23-16-104).
Are NIL contracts public records at CU and Colorado State?
Partly. Since 2025-03-28, C.R.S. § 24-72-204(3)(a)(XXV) tells the records custodian to deny inspection of personally identifiable information in an NIL agreement or related communications, including the athlete's name, contact details, birth date and the license fee paid. The exemption covers that information, not the whole contract, and the athlete as "person in interest" can still see it.
Be your own agent. Leave.
