HB2374 is a broad bill that combines two major policy changes: deregulation of athlete agents and new rules governing name, image, and likeness (NIL) compensation for both high school and college student-athletes. The bill repeals Chapter 5.2 of Title 54.1, which currently regulates athlete agents, and replaces it with a new section in the Consumer Protection Act that makes it a prohibited practice to represent a student-athlete without a written agency contract containing specified disclosures, cancellation rights, and warning language. It also expands the definition of “athlete agent” to include people who recruit, advise, manage, or negotiate NIL opportunities for student-athletes, and it preserves the ability of student-athletes to obtain representation by an athlete agent or attorney.
The bill also creates parallel NIL frameworks for interscholastic and intercollegiate athletics. For high school and college athletes, schools and athletic organizations generally may not bar athletes from earning NIL compensation, obtaining representation, or remaining eligible solely because they do so. At the same time, the bill imposes limits on what NIL deals may involve, including prohibitions on alcohol, adult entertainment, cannabis and THC products, controlled substances, performance-enhancing drugs, tobacco, weapons, and gambling. It requires disclosure of NIL agreements to the school or institution, allows schools to block conflicts with existing institutional agreements, restricts use of school facilities and intellectual property for NIL opportunities unless authorized, and authorizes injunctive relief for aggrieved student-athletes. For colleges, the bill also bars institutions from reducing or canceling scholarships because of NIL compensation and prohibits use of student fees to pay athletes for NIL.
The bill’s impact on state law is significant. It would repeal the existing athlete-agent licensing chapter in Title 54.1 and replace it with a more limited contract-based consumer protection approach, while also amending consumer protection enforcement provisions in Title 59.1 to add specific enforcement authority and penalties for violations involving athlete agents and certain hemp/THC-related practices. It also updates the consumer protection code to include new or revised prohibitions tied to hemp extracts, THC products, kratom, automatic renewal disclosures, and related labeling and sale restrictions. In practical terms, the bill would affect athlete agents, schools, colleges, athletic associations, student-athletes, and businesses selling hemp-derived or THC-containing products.
The general sentiment reflected in the available voting history appears unfavorable to the bill, or at least to advancing it in its introduced form. The only recorded action is a 7-0 subcommittee vote recommending that the bill be struck from the docket, which indicates unanimous opposition or a decision not to move it forward. No committee transcript is available, so there is no recorded floor discussion to show support or objections in detail.
The main point of contention appears to be the bill’s sweeping restructuring of athlete-agent regulation and NIL rules, especially the repeal of the existing registration framework and the insertion of broad consumer-protection-style penalties. The bill also touches on controversial areas such as hemp-derived cannabinoids, THC products, kratom, and gambling-related NIL restrictions, which may have raised concerns about overbreadth, enforcement complexity, and the interaction between school authority, student-athlete rights, and private business activity. Because the subcommittee recommended striking the bill, the available record suggests these concerns outweighed any support for the proposal.
HB2374 would repeal Virginia’s current athlete-agent licensing chapter in Title 54.1 and replace it with a new consumer-protection-based framework that regulates athlete-agent contracts, disclosures, cancellation rights, and penalties. It would also amend the Consumer Protection Act to add enforcement tools and penalties tied to athlete-agent violations and several hemp/THC-related practices. In addition, it would create or revise NIL rules for high school and college student-athletes, limiting school and association restrictions while imposing content-based prohibitions and disclosure requirements that affect schools, institutions, athletic associations, athlete agents, attorneys, and student-athletes.
The only recorded vote is a unanimous 7-0 subcommittee recommendation to strike the bill from the docket, which suggests the measure did not have support to advance in committee. With no transcript available, the record does not show affirmative testimony, but the procedural outcome indicates a generally negative reception or at least insufficient support for the bill’s approach.
The likely areas of contention are the repeal of the existing athlete-agent regulatory chapter, the bill’s broad redefinition of athlete-agent activity, and the shift to a new enforcement model under consumer protection law. Additional likely concerns include the bill’s detailed NIL restrictions for high school and college athletes, the limits on certain sponsorship categories such as cannabis, alcohol, and gambling, and the bill’s added regulation of hemp-derived cannabinoids, THC products, kratom, and related labeling and sales practices. These provisions could be viewed as either necessary guardrails or as overly expansive and difficult to administer.