Secretary Cardona on N.I.L to Commemorate 50 Years of Title IX

June 23, 2022

To commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Title IX, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona discussed Title IX’s history and recent developments with ESPN as a part of its Fifty/50 Initiative.

When asked about NIL (name, image and likeness) in college athletics, Dr. Cardona expressed his concern that NIL may favor male athletes. “Some of the concerns I have is that it’s going to be male athletes getting paid and [the] just-as-committed, just-as-hard-working women athletes, not,” he stated. Mr. Cardona called for universities to be proactive and “create structures that are monitoring this” and not to “wait for the problem.”

As NIL becomes more ingrained in college athletics, some predict that schools will be required to report student NIL agreements to the Department of Education. While Dr. Cardona did not confirm this, he believes that “[the Department has] an opportunity” to create and promote “structures at the federal level that could be visited at the state [and] college level [to] ensure equity.”

To learn more about ESPN’s Fifty/50 Initiative and other events commemorating Title IX, check out our compilation.