Abstract
This Article examines the growing use of narrowly tailored state income tax exemptions as a tool to attract elite collegiate athletic talent, focusing on Arkansas’s amended Student-Athlete Publicity Rights Act. Situating this development within the constitutional frameworks of the federal Equal Protection Clause and state uniformity provisions, it analyzes both the economic motivations and legislative intent underlying such policies. As name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights and emerging revenue-sharing models continue to reshape college athlete compensation, states are increasingly pursuing innovative strategies to maintain the competitiveness of their public institutions. Arkansas has emerged as a first mover in this space, pairing early NIL legislation with the nation’s first exemption of certain college athlete income from state taxation. Although this approach reflects a calculated effort to enhance recruiting and institutional prominence, it raises substantial constitutional concerns. By extending tax advantages to a discrete and highly visible class of individuals, the policy invites scrutiny over whether such preferential treatment serves a legitimate public purpose or instead contravenes bedrock principles of tax equity, uniformity, and equal protection.
Recommended Citation
Kathryn Kisska-Schulze & Adam Epstein,
Tax Equity in the Era of Paid College Athletes,
91 Brook. L. Rev.
1165
(2026).
Available at:
https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/blr/vol91/iss4/2