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Payments to college athletes through revenue-sharing agreements or from name, image and likeness deals “must be made proportionately available to male and female athletes,” the Biden administration said last week.

The nine-page fact sheet outlining how Title IX applies to the compensation of student athletes comes as more athletes are signing lucrative NIL deals and amid questions about whether those payments count as financial assistance. The federal gender-equity law requires colleges to provide “substantially proportionate” financial assistance such as scholarships to male and female athletes.

The guidance from the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights was released just a few days before the Trump administration began and could be rescinded. But until then, the guidance will remain in effect.

NIL payments from outside sources won’t count as financial assistance, however, colleges aren’t entirely off the hook when it comes to their Title IX obligations.

“The fact that funds are provided by a private source does not relieve a school of its responsibility to treat all of its student-athletes in a nondiscriminatory manner,” officials wrote. “It is possible that NIL agreements between student-athletes and third parties will create similar disparities and therefore trigger a school’s Title IX obligations.”

Texas senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, criticized the guidance in a statement and predicted that it would be scrapped immediately.

“This is a great idea if Biden’s intent is to kill both men’s and women’s college sports,” Cruz said in a statement. “Mandating so-called equal pay when not all sports generate equal revenue will force some colleges out of athletics altogether. Everyone wants to be paid like Michael Jordan, but that’s not the way the world works.”