Both Alaska senators back advancing a federal NIL bill

Both of Alaska's senators voted Tuesday to advance a federal bill that would set the name, image and likeness rules for college athletes — rules Alaska itself has never written.

Alaska is among the states with no NIL law of its own, so athletes at the University of Alaska Anchorage and University of Alaska Fairbanks operate under NCAA policy and whatever their campuses decide. A federal standard would apply to them directly, without a state law in between.

Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan both voted yes as the Senate agreed 74-24 to take up the Protect College Sports Act. The vote was on cloture for the motion to proceed — a procedural step that clears the way to consider the bill, not passage of it.

The measure would bar schools and conferences from restricting athletes' NIL deals and require athletes to report compensation above $600. It would also give schools, conferences and athletic associations a limited antitrust exemption for enforcing the NIL rules the bill establishes.

That last piece is what critics object to. The National College Players Association says the exemption would let the NCAA and conferences collude on limiting what athletes earn. "The PCSA protections are fake for too many athletes," executive director Ramogi Huma said this month.

The bill still needs to pass the full Senate and clear the House.