BOISE — Gov. Brad Little announced the formation of a new College Athletics Working Group on Monday, with a stated aim of keeping Idaho universities’ athletics programs competitive.

The group will be hearing from each Idaho public university’s athletic department over the coming months to identify both “policy solutions and investment opportunities tailored to each institution’s needs,” a news release from Little’s office said.

“Idaho’s colleges and universities deliver real value to students, communities, our economy, and our athletics programs are a meaningful part of that. This working group will make sure we’re not sitting on the sidelines,” Little said in the release.

The working group is set to be chaired by Cortney Liddiard, an Idaho Falls businessman and former CEO of commercial real estate firm Ball Ventures. The remaining board members, comprised of educational, business and legislative leadership, is as follows:

• Kurt Liebich — President of the Idaho State Board of Education
• Senate Majority Leader Lori Den Hartog (R-Meridian)
• House Majority Leader Jason Monks (R-Meridian)
• Troy V. Bell — President and CEO of TanaBell Health Services; Founder, President, and CEO of Black Label Supplements; Idaho State University alumnus; former Idaho State University Foundation board member; former ISU football student-athlete
• Mark Miller — CEO of Miller Family Holdings and former Chairman of the Board of Idaho First Bank
• Debbie Hetherington — Retired owner and partner at Premier Insurance and former Board Member for the University of Idaho Foundation
• Mike Tatko — Community Relations Manager for Avista Utilities and member of the Lewis-Clark State College Foundation Board

The working group arrives as the White House and Congress are exploring federal reforms to college sports. While the release notes these efforts are pending, the working group will focus on options at the state and local levels that can serve to benefit public universities.

The group is expected to present its findings to Little in September along with recommendations for how to best support the “long-term competitiveness and sustainability of intercollegiate athletics in Idaho,” the release said.

The working group arrives several years after the NCAA instituted a Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) policy in 2021 to permit student-athletes to make money off of their personal brand after previously being forbidden from doing so.

Today, these student-athlete deals still lack federal regulation and have instead been met with a patchwork of state regulations that lack consistency in how NIL arrangements are allowed to operate. While the majority of states have since enacted respective state legislation, Idaho is one of more than a dozen without statewide rules.

In a show of support for federal NIL regulation, the Idaho Legislature approved Senate Joint Memorial 114 this past legislative session, urging Congress to take “action to prevent program cuts, escalating costs, and competitive disparities.”

While Idaho’s joint memorial was being debated, representatives for Boise State offered support for national regulation of these deals, contending that the current arrangement has resulted in colleges in other states playing by different rules.

Currently, states that go without regulation of NIL deals operate under rules adopted by an individual university and the NCAA’s overarching regulatory framework. That framework shifted significantly last year, after a federal lawsuit was settled to allow schools to directly share revenue with student-athletes, among other changes, as was reported by the Associated Press.

“We need a single uniform national framework for NIL, revenue sharing and eligibility status to preempt state laws and litigation,” Boise State athletic director Jeramiah Dickey said in prior testimony on the legislature’s memorial.