The Florida State Seminoles are making the wrong kinds of headlines.
Last week, CBS Sports reported that Florida State's revenue-sharing contracts are heavily skewed in favor of the school and are a significant outlier compared to what other schools are doing in the NIL era.
Heitner Legal founder Darren Heitner agrees.
"It's probably one of the most unconscionable contracts I've reviewed in 15 years of practicing law," he posted to X. "I wonder who thought it was a good idea to create such a one-sided contract that no reasonable person would agree to."
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Heitner practices sports law and has been highly involved in the push for athletes' rights. Since the summer of 2021, he has been in a strong position to help athletes, agents and brands navigate the NIL space.
Heitner has seen "hundreds" of NIL contracts and collective deals. And he doesn't like what he sees in Florida State's contracts.
"There are many issues with the contract, including but not limited to the heavy-handed nature of the liquidated damages clause, allowing broad rights to the school if the player does not wish to renegotiate the terms of the agreement, allowing the school to get out of payments if the athlete is injured, and various fines that can be imposed for team-related activities, which have nothing to do with NIL," Heitner explained.
As CBS Sports reported, some of those issues, more specifically, include up to $2,500 fines for losing team equipment, the right to extend an athlete's deal without a new negotiation and a clause that can consider an athlete's injury or illness a breach of contract.
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How close is Florida State's contract to a typical NIL contract?
"There is no 'standard NIL contract,' but this contract is much more lopsided in favor of the school than any revenue-sharing contract that I have reviewed to date, which includes various other ACC revenue-sharing agreements, agreements from SEC and Big Ten schools, and others," Heitner said via e-mail.
Of those, he feels most programs are negotiating in good faith.
"Most do it 'the right way,' which is to certainly seek to protect their rights, but not make it so one-sided that it really is exploitative of the athlete," Heitner said.
He recommends that athletes hire a lawyer to review NIL-related contracts, especially since the NCAA rules seem to change on a seasonal basis.
Regardless of how those rules evolve, however, Florida State needs to make some changes.
And their athletes should be wary of putting pen to paper unless those changes are made.
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