All Roll Calls
Yes: 151 • No: 9
TennesseeSB 0536114th General Assembly (2025-2026)Senate
AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, relative to education.
Sponsored By: Sponsor information unavailable
Signed by Governor
Sports
Personalized for You
How does this bill affect your finances?
Personalize government policy and PRIA will tell you what this bill means for your household, plus every other piece of legislation we track. PRIA reads each provision against your financial profile to show you exactly what matters to your wallet.
Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
10 provisions identified: 4 benefits, 1 costs, 5 mixed.
More earning options for Tennessee athletes
Beginning May 15, 2025, athletes at Tennessee public and private four-year schools can earn name, image, and likeness pay. Schools governed by the board of regents are excluded. Future athletes qualify after starting ninth grade if they may later enroll and participate. Pay can also cover enrollment, roster spots, or comparable categories available to similar athletes in interstate commerce. Schools, affiliated foundations, and other third parties can arrange or provide pay, subject to express federal, court, or lawful association limits. Schools and foundations can make related business deals that provide economic benefits, but state-appropriated funds are excluded from compensation.
Sports associations must protect athlete rights
Beginning May 15, 2025, sports associations cannot block permitted athlete pay, representation, deal reviews, eligibility, or full participation in events. They cannot punish participating schools or foundations, impose unlawful membership conditions, or threaten harm to force repeal of state law. Associations must preserve athlete rights and schools' legal immunities, obey antitrust laws, and ensure required legal exemptions before covered actions. They must cover losses caused by noncompliance; actions violating the specified duties are unenforceable against schools and athletes. Tennessee's attorney general can enforce the law, but it creates no new private right to sue or seek court-ordered relief.
Athlete contract limits and legal safeguards
Beginning May 15, 2025, representation agreements cannot outlast an athlete's participation in the school's athletic program. Third-party deals that harm eligibility or block an event must be canceled or fixed before participation. This correction rule excludes deals made under the school-facilitation provision. If correction is late or the third party defaults, athletes can seek to void the deal from the start, restoring their rights without penalty, loss, or fault. Name, image, and likeness agreements entered by athletes under 18 must follow Tennessee's Protection of Minor Performers Act.
Athlete pay protections and money training
Beginning May 15, 2025, permitted name, image, and likeness work and pay do not affect athletic eligibility or athletic grants-in-aid. Schools can adjust need-based aid because of this income. They must treat athletes like other students with equivalent financial need. Schools must conduct a workshop during each athlete's first full-time term covering this law, budgeting, and debt management. Schools or affiliated foundations can hire qualified providers to lead it.
Schools gain protection from athlete claims
Beginning May 15, 2025, covered schools and affiliated foundations are protected from claims tied to good-faith athlete compensation decisions. This protection covers related actions and involvement in name, image, and likeness matters. Athletes and third parties cannot hold them liable for covered damages, losses, or claims. The law also preserves sovereign immunity and other existing legal immunities.
Athletes can check school deal authority
Beginning May 15, 2025, athletes can request written proof from anyone claiming to act for a school or affiliated foundation. That third party must provide proof and allow verification with the school or foundation within one week of the request. If the deadline is missed or authority cannot be verified, the athlete can give notice to void the unauthorized party's contract. The contract is treated as invalid from the start, without penalty, loss, or fault for the athlete.
Stronger safeguards for athlete representatives
Beginning May 15, 2025, third-party representatives must put athletes' interests first when checking opportunities or securing pay. Athlete agents must meet Tennessee licensing rules; attorneys must be active and in good standing where licensed. Parents, siblings, grandparents, spouses, and legal guardians representing athletes are not treated as athlete agents. Schools and affiliated foundations can help without being treated as agents if their personnel meet the financial-interest and noninterference limits. Their personnel cannot pressure or interfere with athlete decisions or hold a direct financial interest in specific pay terms, except through qualifying third-party agreements.
Private schools can waive athlete protections
Beginning May 15, 2025, a private school and its sports association can jointly opt out of specified association requirements. The opt-out covers only those requirements as they apply to that school's enrolled athletes, not the entire law. It cannot change the law's application to the association's relationships with other schools or athletes. The school must notify enrolled athletes and relevant association members by the earlier applicable deadline: 30 days after the agreement or 30 days after an athlete's first enrollment.
Athlete deal reporting and privacy protections
Beginning May 15, 2025, schools or sports associations can require athletes to disclose third-party pay agreements, terms, and annual reports. Disclosure must respect commercially reasonable contract terms, with reports filed at the required time and in the required manner. Records from related deal reviews, recruitment, eligibility decisions, and compensation activities are confidential, though voluntary disclosure is allowed. On public-records requests, schools must release annualized, grouped totals of their own covered payments for an academic year, without protected personal or proprietary business details. Authorized state officials can review records while keeping them confidential; this confidentiality subsection ends July 1, 2032.
Limits on athletes' paid promotions
Beginning May 15, 2025, athletes cannot promote gambling, tobacco, THC products or derivatives, alcohol, or adult entertainment. Schools can set reasonable limits on when, where, and how promotions happen to protect teams, operations, facilities, and programs. Schools can also bar promotions that reasonably conflict with their values or use school-owned names, logos, or other intellectual property. Athletes and their representatives cannot make pay deals that conflict or unreasonably compete with existing school or affiliated-foundation agreements. A school or foundation claiming such a conflict must share the relevant contract terms with the athlete or representative.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsors
There is no primary sponsor on record.
Cosponsors
Todd Gardenhire
Republican • Senate
Adam Lowe
Republican • Senate
Becky D. Massey
Republican • Senate
Ken Yager
Republican • Senate
Roll Call Votes
Senate vote • 4/21/2025
FLOOR VOTE: Motion to Concur House Amendment # 1 4/21/2025
Yes: 33 • No: 0
House vote • 4/16/2025
FLOOR VOTE: REGULAR CALENDAR AS AMENDED PASSAGE ON THIRD CONSIDERATION 4/16/2025
Yes: 78 • No: 9
Senate vote • 3/24/2025
FLOOR VOTE: as Amended Third Consideration 3/24/2025
Yes: 32 • No: 0
Senate vote • 3/19/2025
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE
Yes: 8 • No: 0
Bill Text
HA0234
4/16/2025
Enrolled / Public Chapter
Fiscal Note
Introduced
SA0174
Related Bills
SB 0539, AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 7; Title 13; Title 48; Title 49; Title 67 and Title 68, relative to low-income housing.
SB 0254, AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 38; Title 39; Title 40 and Title 55, relative to criminal law.
SB 0198, AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 67, relative to taxes.
HB 2670, AN ACT to amend Chapter 33 of the Private Acts of 1985; as amended by Chapter 85 of the Private Acts of 2004; and any other acts amendatory thereto, relative to the City of Gleason.
HB 2666, AN ACT to amend Chapter 131 of the Private Acts of 1969; as amended by Chapter 85 of the Private Acts of 1987; Chapter 74 of the Private Acts of 1995; Chapter 57 of the Private Acts of 2001 and Chapter 67 of the Private Acts of 2024; and any other acts amendatory thereto, relative to the privilege tax upon hotel occupancy in Shelby County.
HB 2656, AN ACT to amend Chapter 325 of the Private Acts of 1945; as amended by Chapter 335 of the Private Acts of 1968; Chapter 282 of the Private Acts of 1972; Chapter 23 of the Private Acts of 1973; Chapter 93 of the Private Acts of 1983; Chapter 83 of the Private Acts of 1985; Chapter 218 of the Private Acts of 1990; Chapter 11 of the Private Acts of 1991; Chapter 65 of the Private Acts of 1993; Chapter 90 of the Private Acts of 2000; Chapter 77 of the Private Acts of 2002; Chapter 136 of the Private Acts of 2002; Chapter 27 of the Private Acts of 2011; Chapter 41 of the Private Acts of 2022; and any other acts amendatory thereto, relative to the City of Lafayette.