The law
Kentucky's college NIL law is KRS 164.6941 to 164.6951 (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 a person who has entered into an institutional agreement or other contract to enroll and participate in intercollegiate athletics at an institution, or who is enrolled and participates as an athlete in intercollegiate athletics there. "Institution" means a public or private Kentucky college, university or community college that participates in intercollegiate athletics. Prospective student-athletes (identified by a school for possible recruitment) are defined and are named in the reaffirmation rule | 164.6941(14), (16), (18); 164.6951(4) |
| Disclosure to the school | A student-athlete who wishes to enter into an NIL agreement with a third party submits the potential agreement to the official the school designates, in the manner the school designates. The school has up to three business days to review it for conflicts with the statute or its reasonable restrictions and give written notice of any conflicts; the athlete may enter the agreement after conflicts are resolved. Later proposed modifications are submitted the same way. Each governing board adopts a policy naming the official, setting review procedures and providing a timely appeal process | 164.6947(2)(a), (b) |
| Banned categories | A student-athlete "shall not" enter into an NIL agreement with a third party relating to the endorsement or promotion of sports betting, a controlled substance, a substance the athlete's intercollegiate athletic association forbids the athlete from using, adult entertainment, or products or services that would be illegal for the athlete to possess or receive. A school's policy may also bar deals for products or services reasonably considered to conflict with its mission, in the same manner as any other student would be barred | 164.6945(4); 164.6947(1)(a) |
| Conflicts with team contracts | A governing board may adopt reasonable written restrictions, given to all athletes, equitably enforced and not an undue burden, including: forbidding or conditioning use of the school's trademarks, trade dress and copyrights (with preferential conditions for the school's partner entities); barring deals that would make the athlete miss an official team activity; restricting NIL activity during official team activities; and requiring participation in official team activities under the institutional agreement or other written team contract, which may include use of the athlete's NIL. Since 2025-03-13 the bar on schools and associations prohibiting third-party NIL earnings does not apply "as otherwise agreed to in an institutional agreement" | 164.6947(1)(b) to (e); 164.6941(13); 164.6943(1) |
| School and coach involvement | A school or its affiliated corporation (an entity its governing board creates or designates under KRS 164A.610) may designate, by contract, sublicense or other written agreement, a media rights holder or other third parties with whom its athletes may enter NIL agreements directly, consistent with the prevailing range of compensation. A governing board may run a program offering impartial analysis of potential deals, referral of third parties to athletes or their agents, and education. Employees, "including athletics coaching staff", and affiliated corporation employees are not liable for damage to an athlete's NIL earnings from decisions routinely taken in intercollegiate athletics, except for gross negligence or wanton, willful, malicious or intentional misconduct. The 2022 bans on schools and affiliated organizations giving or directing NIL pay, or negotiating an NIL agreement for a prospective student-athlete, were repealed effective 2025-03-13 | 164.6941(1); 164.6945(3); 164.6947(3), (5), (6) |
| Direct pay from the school | A student-athlete may receive compensation from a school or its affiliated corporation, "including but not limited to sharing revenue as permitted or required by a legal settlement or applicable law", by entering into a written institutional agreement, in exchange for NIL, institutional brand promotion or other rights. Third-party NIL pay must be consistent with the "prevailing range of compensation" (a valid business purpose, at rates commensurate with pay to similarly situated athletes not at the school), and a school or association may require that. The NIL sections do not waive a public school's immunity beyond any waiver for actions brought on a written institutional agreement under KRS 45A.245 | 164.6945(1), (2); 164.6941(7), (15); 164.6943(1); 164.6949(1) |
| Agents and attorneys | A school or association may not prohibit a student-athlete from obtaining an athlete agent or penalize the athlete for it. Since 2022 an "agency contract" under the Revised Uniform Athlete Agents Act includes an agreement to negotiate or solicit an NIL agreement. Agents register with the Department of Professional Licensing (two-year registration; statutory cap $300; 830 KAR 2:010 sets $300 initial and $200 renewal), the contract carries a boldface warning, both agent and athlete notify the athletic director within 72 hours or before the next athletic event, and the athlete may cancel within 14 days. Licensed professionals such as attorneys are not agents unless they also recruit or solicit the athlete or are paid differently; a parent or guardian is not an agent unless paid to steer the athlete. No percentage cap on agent fees | 164.6943(1); 164.6903(1), (2); 164.6907; 164.6911(6); 164.6915; 164.6917; 164.6919(2), (3); 164.6921 |
| High school and minors | A parent or guardian of a minor student-athlete may enter the minor into an NIL agreement or agency contract; the minor reaffirms it within 30 days of turning 18 or it is revoked. For high school, no KHSAA member school may grant a student-athlete the right to use school property or intellectual property (trademarks, uniforms, copyrights) in NIL activities, and no student-athlete may use them. The college NIL sections do not change the powers of the Kentucky Board of Education or the KHSAA | 164.6951(3); KRS 156.070(2)(j); 164.6949(4) |
| Financial literacy | Each school provides its athletes a financial literacy and life skills workshop of at least five hours at the beginning of the first and third academic years, covering financial aid, debt management, saving and budgeting, time management, academic resources, and social media and brand management. The workshop may not include marketing, referral or solicitation by providers of financial, marketing, branding or other NIL products or services | 164.6947(4) |
| Scholarship protection | A school may not revoke a scholarship or let scholarship eligibility be adversely affected because an athlete lawfully earns NIL pay or obtains an agent, unless the athlete violated a reasonable restriction under 164.6947. Need-based aid, or an academic scholarship based partly on need, may be affected by income from an institutional agreement or an NIL agreement | 164.6943(2) |
| Confidentiality of contracts | For the Kentucky Open Records Act, a student-athlete's institutional agreement, or an NIL agreement submitted for review to a public postsecondary school, and the information obtained from it, are treated as personal information whose disclosure would be a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy under KRS 61.878, and are not subject to disclosure. Institutional agreements were added on 2025-03-13 | 164.6947(7) |
| NCAA and conference penalties | An association may not prohibit a student-athlete from lawfully earning NIL pay from a third party or obtaining an athlete agent, or penalize the athlete for it, and may not bar or penalize a school because its athlete did so. An association may require pay to be consistent with the prevailing range of compensation, and a school policy may impose discipline under team, school or association rules for violating the statute or a reasonable restriction. The statute does not address association penalties for school pay or for collectives | 164.6943(1), (3); 164.6947(1)(f) |
| Remedies and enforcement | The NIL sections name no enforcement agency, penalty or express private right of action. All institutional agreements, NIL agreements and agency contracts of student-athletes enrolled at Kentucky schools are governed by Kentucky law. An NIL agreement or agency contract formed before or during participation at a school is revoked unless the athlete reaffirms it within 30 days of no longer participating there. Immunity of public schools is not waived beyond contract actions on written institutional agreements under KRS 45A.245. Under the agent act, a school or athlete may sue an agent for damages, the department may impose a civil penalty up to $50,000, and unregistered agent activity is a Class A misdemeanor (a registered agent's knowing prohibited act or contract violation is a Class D felony) | 164.6951(2), (4); 164.6949(1); 164.6927; 164.6929 |
| Employee status | Nothing in the NIL sections establishes student-athletes as employees or independent contractors of a school or an association | 164.6949(3) |
Executive Order 2021-418, then SB 6
The first Kentucky NIL bill, SB 249 (2021 Regular Session), was sent to the Senate Committee on Committees on 2021-02-11 and had no further action. On 2021-06-24 Governor Andy Beshear signed Executive Order 2021-418, "Relating to responsibilities of postsecondary educational institutions as to name, image and likeness compensation of student-athletes", effective 2021-07-01. It said Kentucky colleges "shall not prevent" an athlete from earning NIL pay or from obtaining a certified agent, except for pay for athletic participation, deals that conflict with a school contract, and pay "by, compensation arranged by, or compensation at the direction of" the school or the organizations that support it. Schools could limit dates and times, bar categories such as alcohol, tobacco, firearms and "sexually-oriented activities", control use of their marks, and require disclosure of NIL contracts. It named the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, Eastern Kentucky, Kentucky State, Morehead State, Murray State, Northern Kentucky and Western Kentucky universities, KCTCS schools and accredited independent colleges licensed by the Council on Postsecondary Education, and was to last "until superseded by state or federal law."
SB 6 (2022 Ky. Acts ch. 12) superseded it on 2022-03-09. Its Section 9 declared NIL agreements entered into under the order valid for one year from the Act becoming law, after which they "shall become invalid but may be renewed" under the Act, and declared the order "nullified and is of no further force or effect."
How the law changed in 2024 and 2025
- 2022. SB 6 barred anyone from using NIL pay to recruit or induce an athlete to enroll at a Kentucky school, or to transfer away from one, and barred schools, associations and "affiliated organizations" from giving or directing NIL pay or negotiating any part of an NIL agreement for a prospective student-athlete (former KRS 164.6945(2), (3)).
- 2024. SB 285 (2024 Ky. Acts ch. 194, effective 2024-04-16 under an emergency clause) kept those two bans only to the extent an intercollegiate athletic association "may lawfully regulate or restrict" the same conduct, "including as currently or may be in the future modified by a court of competent jurisdiction", and chooses to.
- 2025. SB 3 (2025 Ky. Acts ch. 10, effective 2025-03-13, also an emergency act) deleted both bans and the 2024 condition, and authorized school pay through written institutional agreements, "including but not limited to sharing revenue as permitted or required by a legal settlement or applicable law". It replaced "affiliated organization" with "affiliated corporation" (an entity the governing board creates or designates under KRS 164A.610), replaced "prevailing market rate" with "prevailing range of compensation", let schools designate media rights holders and other third parties for direct NIL deals, extended the Open Records exemption to institutional agreements, and extended the reaffirmation rule to prospective student-athletes. SB 3 took effect before the House settlement was approved on 2025-06-06.
- 2026. The Kentucky Revised Statutes database (updated 2026-10-21, through the 2026 Regular Session) shows no 2026 amendment to KRS 164.6941 to 164.6951. SB 130 (2026), which would have required "intercollegiate athletics enterprises" paying more than $1,000 to athletes and coaches to register with the Council on Postsecondary Education and pay a 10% fee into a scholarship fund, was referred to the Senate State and Local Government Committee on 2026-02-13, its last action.
Agents in Kentucky
Kentucky's agent law is the Revised Uniform Athlete Agents Act, KRS 164.6901 to 164.6935. SB 6 added NIL agreements to the definition of "agency contract" (KRS 164.6903(1)), so anyone who recruits or solicits a student-athlete into an NIL representation agreement is an athlete agent. The act's "student-athlete" includes high school athletes (KRS 164.6903(19)). An agent registers with the Department of Professional Licensing before signing an agency contract (KRS 164.6907); a registration lasts two years (KRS 164.6911(6)), and 830 KAR 2:010 sets the fee at $300 initial and $200 renewal. The contract states the agent's fee and its duration and carries a boldface "WARNING TO STUDENT-ATHLETE" (KRS 164.6917). Within 72 hours after signing, or before the next athletic event if sooner, the agent and the athlete each notify the athletic director (KRS 164.6919(2), (3)). The athlete may cancel within 14 days, and that right cannot be waived (KRS 164.6921). A contract made in violation of the registration rule is void (KRS 164.6907(3)). Acting as an agent without registration is a Class A misdemeanor, and so is an athlete's knowing and willful failure to give the athletic director notice (KRS 164.6927(1), (4)). The state's public directory of registered athlete agents is at oop.ky.gov.
How it changed
| Act | What it did | Effective |
|---|---|---|
| Executive Order 2021-418 (Gov. Beshear, signed and filed 2021-06-24) | barred Kentucky colleges from preventing NIL pay or a certified agent, except pay for athletic participation, deals conflicting with school contracts, and pay by or arranged by the school or its supporting organizations; let schools limit times, categories and use of school marks, and require disclosure of NIL contracts | 2021-07-01 |
| SB 6 (2022 Regular Session), 2022 Ky. Acts ch. 12, signed 2022-03-09 | enacted KRS 164.6941 to 164.6951: third-party NIL pay, school review within 3 business days, banned categories, financial literacy workshops, Open Records exemption, Kentucky law governs; banned NIL pay as a recruiting inducement and school or affiliated-organization pay; added NIL agreements to "agency contract" (KRS 164.6903); barred high school NIL use of school marks (KRS 156.070); nullified Executive Order 2021-418 | 2022-03-09 |
| SB 285 (2024 Regular Session), 2024 Ky. Acts ch. 194, signed 2024-04-16 | made the inducement ban and the school-pay ban in KRS 164.6945(2), (3) apply only to the extent an intercollegiate athletic association may lawfully impose the same restrictions, including as modified by a court, and chooses to | 2024-04-16 |
| SB 3 (2025 Regular Session), 2025 Ky. Acts ch. 10, signed 2025-03-13 | authorized school pay, including revenue sharing, through written institutional agreements with the school or its affiliated corporation; repealed the inducement and school-pay bans; added "prevailing range of compensation"; let schools designate media rights holders and other third parties; extended the Open Records exemption to institutional agreements; immunity kept except for any waiver for actions on a written institutional agreement under KRS 45A.245; high school bar extended to school property | 2025-03-13 |
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, transfers or eligibility, and § 121(a)(1) reaches state laws that conflict so as to prevent compliance. On its text, § 121(a)(2) describes Kentucky's bars on association rules and penalties (KRS 164.6943(1), (3)) and could reach the statute's limits on what a school policy may restrict (164.6947(1)); whether it reaches the state's own category ban (164.6945(4)) or the 3-business-day review (164.6947(2)) is not settled by the text. § 121(b)(1) keeps, unless they conflict with § 121(a), Uniform Athlete Agent Acts (Kentucky's Revised Uniform Athlete Agents Act, KRS 164.6901 to 164.6935), contract law (the Kentucky-law and reaffirmation rules in 164.6951) and privacy law, which arguably takes in the Open Records exemption in 164.6947(7), framed as a privacy exemption under KRS 61.878. School pay under 164.6945(2) matches § 101(c), subject to the revenue share cap in § 114, and § 122 is neutral on employee status (164.6949(3)). The bill would add, for Division I schools, a report of deals over $600 to the school and the association's designated entity within 5 days (§ 101(b)), and a 5% cap on agent fees for endorsement contracts with no agency term past eligibility (§ 102).
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. Kentucky's athlete-agent rules are on the state-by-state registration table.
- High school. High school NIL in Kentucky 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 Kentucky
What is Kentucky's NIL law in 2026?
KRS 164.6941 to 164.6951, enacted by SB 6 (2022 Ky. Acts ch. 12, effective 2022-03-09), amended by SB 285 (effective 2024-04-16) and rewritten by SB 3 (2025 Ky. Acts ch. 10, effective 2025-03-13). No section was amended in the 2026 session. The law lets athletes earn NIL pay from third parties and, since 2025, from their school under a written institutional agreement; requires proposed third-party deals to go to the school for a review of up to three business days; bars deals for sports betting, controlled substances and adult entertainment; and bars associations from penalizing athletes or schools for lawful third-party NIL pay.
Can Kentucky colleges pay athletes directly?
Yes, under state law since 2025-03-13. KRS 164.6945(2) says a student-athlete may receive compensation from a school or its affiliated corporation, including revenue sharing "as permitted or required by a legal settlement or applicable law", through a written institutional agreement, for NIL, institutional brand promotion or other rights. From 2022 to 2025 the statute barred schools and affiliated organizations from giving NIL pay; SB 285 (2024) narrowed that ban and SB 3 (2025) removed it.
Do I have to tell my school about an NIL deal in Kentucky?
KRS 164.6947(2)(a) says a student-athlete who wishes to enter into an NIL agreement with a third party submits the potential agreement to the official the school designates. The school has up to three business days to review it and give written notice of any conflicts with the statute or its reasonable restrictions, and the athlete may enter the agreement after conflicts are resolved. Later changes to the agreement are submitted the same way. Each school's board sets the procedure and an appeal process.
Does Kentucky require an NIL agent to be licensed?
Kentucky requires registration. Since 2022 an agreement authorizing someone to negotiate or solicit an NIL agreement is an "agency contract" (KRS 164.6903(1)), so the agent registers with the Department of Professional Licensing under KRS 164.6907, for two years (KRS 164.6911(6)); 830 KAR 2:010 sets a $300 initial and $200 renewal fee. The athlete and the agent each notify the athletic director within 72 hours, or before the next athletic event if sooner (KRS 164.6919), and the athlete may cancel within 14 days (KRS 164.6921). The statute sets no percentage cap on fees.
Are NIL contracts public records in Kentucky?
Not at public colleges. KRS 164.6947(7) says an institutional agreement, or an NIL agreement submitted to a public postsecondary school for review, and information obtained from it, are treated as personal information whose disclosure would be a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy under KRS 61.878, and are not subject to disclosure under the Open Records Act. Institutional agreements were added by SB 3 on 2025-03-13.
What happens to a Kentucky NIL deal when an athlete leaves the school?
KRS 164.6951(4) says an NIL agreement or agency contract formed or reaffirmed before or while the athlete was participating in intercollegiate athletics at a school is revoked unless the athlete reaffirms it within 30 days of no longer participating there. A deal a parent signed for a minor must also be reaffirmed within 30 days of the athlete turning 18 (164.6951(3)).
Be your own agent. Leave.
