Earlier this month, Georgia state lawmakers proposed a bill that would exempt NIL, or name, image and likeness, earnings for college athletes from the state’s 5.49% income tax.
Proposed by state senators Brandon Beach, Greg Dolezal, Ben Watson, Carden Summers and Frank Ginn, the bill would even out competition for athletic recruiting with states like Tennessee, Florida and Texas, which have no state income tax.
In the relatively new age of NIL, it seems like many college athletic recruiting battles are now won by the highest bidder, and many college athletic programs are eager to use any benefit they can on the recruiting trail.
Many states, especially in the south, have passed bills in recent years to keep NCAA oversight out of NIL activity, with Missouri passing a bill allowing even high schoolers who have signed with in-state colleges to begin to seek endorsements.
This legislative action comes from the major positive effect that college athletics can have on local and state economies.
On average, the SEC, or Southeastern Conference, brings in 75,000 people per football game, which means there are more people giving business to local shops and restaurants.
In Athens, Ga., local businesses saw a large increase in engagement following the University of Georgia Bulldogs’ 2021 national championship win. Success sells, and an elite football team combined with mass celebration for milestone wins, like national championship parades, means money rolling in for the college town.
However, success starts with recruiting, and with that factor of college athletics being amplified by the transfer portal, the name given to the database listing athletes seeking transfers between institutions, athletic programs need every advantage they can get to acquire the top talent in the country to compete for national titles.
UGA, whose football team is one of the premier collegiate athletic programs in the state of Georgia, is in constant competition with other schools in the SEC for the best talent from the south. With schools like the University of Tennessee, the University of Florida and the University of Texas at Austin holding the advantage of being states with no income tax, the lawmakers who proposed the bill feel a need to level the playing field.
“[The bill] helps us compete with Texas, Florida and Tennessee,” Beach told USA Today. “If we want to get the best that’s out there, we’ve got to make sure we have an even playing field with those three states that have very good football programs.”
In the realm of college football, there seems to be a direct correlation between money spent on players through NIL and on-field success.
The 2025 national champion Ohio State Buckeyes famously fielded the “$20 million roster” this past season, and breezed through the playoff, defeating their opponents by an average margin of 16.5 points on their way to a title.
Based on these results, the Buckeyes’ big-spending approach to recruiting will likely push teams to focus even more on NIL efforts and was likely an influence on the bill being proposed in the Georgia state senate.
The idea of the specific exclusion of certain earnings for Georgia student-athletes may upset some Georgians.
“Nobody wants to get taxed, but I don’t feel bad for college athletes in that sense,” said Dylan Lewis, a senior marketing major. “They’re getting paid pretty decently, so I would say they should pay taxes on it.”
For states like Florida, Tennessee and Texas that have no income tax, there is no advantage that athletes receive that could be deemed unfair, but other residents of Georgia will still pay their share of taxes if the bill becomes law.
“If everyone else pays taxes, so should they,” said Owen Faulk, a senior accounting major.
If the bill is passed, recruiting could look very different for the state of Georgia in the coming years.