Illinois state Rep. Travis Weaver remembers how surreal it felt having Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram sit a few rows behind him in a political science class. He will never forget the pure joy in Alabama every time the Crimson Tide rolled to the national championship, either.
Weaver was there for two title runs as a student from 2010 to 2015. The way he sees it, coach Nick Saban and his players weren’t the only winners.
“The city of Tuscaloosa, the state of Alabama, the employers who recruited the University of Alabama because there’s higher-caliber students there — they all benefited massively because of the success of the football team,” Weaver said. “Coach Saban made that a different school than when he got there. Obviously, the football team was better. But what I saw as a student was an entire community become much stronger because of that success.”
His college experience is driving the push he’s now making.
Weaver wants to give an assist to Illinois schools and entice more recruits to stay home by exempting up to $100,000 in name, image and likeness earnings from the state income tax. In Georgia and Alabama, lawmakers are looking to eliminate income tax on NIL earnings altogether. There’s a similar push in Louisiana.
Lawmakers see the legislation they are proposing as a way to level the hyper-competitive recruiting field if not gain an advantage. Their universities are going against schools from Florida, Tennessee and Texas, states where income is not taxed.
The measures could face pushback from other students who make money off their name, image and likeness such as social media influencers, actors and musicians. They might wonder why the quarterback and point guard are getting an exemption but not them.
There is precedent. In 2016, President Barack Obama signed a bill that eliminated the so-called federal “victory tax” on Olympic medalists, preventing the IRS from collecting on medals and prize money up to $1 million. Then again, state lawmakers have to decide if the proposed measures are worth the potential challenges even if they’re on solid legal footing.
“The optics of it probably aren’t great for people that are YouTubers, and some college kids are paying in-state tax and some aren’t,” said Daniel Ryan, a former IRS attorney now at Sullivan and Worcester in Boston. “But I don’t know if there’s a constitutional issue that would prevent it from happening.”
