2025 Ford Lecture: "Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) in College Athletics: Untangling Public Policy Issues and Implications"

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 11, 2025) — The University of Kentucky's 2025 Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Lecture will take on a subject that is reshaping virtually every aspect of the college sports landscape — the business phenomenon that gives student-athletes the right, for the first time ever, to be compensated for use of their name, image and likeness (NIL).

Hosted by UK’s Martin School of Public Policy and Administration and co-sponsored by the UK College of Communication and Information, the program begins 5:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 13, at the Singletary Center for the Arts, and will focus on untangling the public policy challenges created by NIL. A panel of experts will discuss the current structure governing NIL programs, the dramatic growth of NIL money and potential public policy actions.

The panel will be led by moderator Matt Jones, founder and co-host of Kentucky Sports Radio. Panelists are Amy Privette Perko, who has led the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics since 2005, serving as executive director until October 2016 when she was named chief executive officer; Rob Mangas, a former UK football player and U.S. Senate staffer, who now is an attorney with the Washington law firm Greenberg Traurig’s Federal Government Law & Policy Group; and Mark Story, long-time sports columnist for the Lexington Herald Leader.

“The panel’s challenge will be to demystify the changing structure of college sports and try to preview what the future might look like,” said Spiro Maroulis, Martin School director. “Everything associated with NIL is uncharted territory, not just for student athletes and college athletics programs, but for government policy-makers as well.”

Maroulis noted that the Knight Commission has been actively involved with NIL since April 2020 when it developed a series of guiding principles to protect the rights of college athletes. In August 2025, the commission released the results of a nationwide survey, conducted jointly with Elon University, that showed Americans are divided and often uncertain about the future of college sports. 

The results showed no public consensus on college sports governance and the role of federal and state governments. However, there was overwhelming support for maintaining academic standards for student-athletes and providing equal opportunities to female athletes and sports other than those tied to generating revenue like football and basketball.

Among the policy questions expected to be addressed are:

• Did the recent settlement of the House litigation that allows student-athletes to be directly compensated by college athletic programs for their name, image and likeness create more problems than it cured?
• Should Congress enact legislation to establish a uniform federal standard for NIL?
• What about the states — is there a role for them?
• Does the NCAA need an antitrust exemption to be protected against the likelihood of future NIL litigation?

First held in 2014, the Ford Lecture is in honor of the late former Kentucky governor and four-term U.S senator, who lectured at the Martin School after retiring from the Senate in 1999. The program is free and open to the public.

Full press release here: https://uknow.uky.edu/campus-news/uk-s-2025-ford-lecture-explore-public-policy-challenges-nil