High school recruits and transfer portal players consider a wide range of factors when picking their next school. Some of those factors have been consistent since recruiting became a thing. Others are new factors created by the ever-changing college sports landscape.
How much revenue-sharing and NIL money a player will get is one of the new factors and the Mississippi state legislature is trying to help its universities and colleges on that front.
On Monday, the Mississippi House has passed a bill that would exclude athletes’ NIL earnings from the state’s income tax. That’s just one third of process a bill has to go through in Mississippi to become a law. It’ll have to pass through the state Senate and Governor Tate Reeves will have to sign the bill for it to become a law.
But it’ll be an advantage for Ole Miss and Mississippi State, as well as other schools like Southern Miss, Jackson State, Alcorn State, Delta State and many others.
Mississippi isn’t pioneering anything here. Several other states already have similar laws. Arkansas passed a bill in 2025 to exempt NIL money from income taxes. Florida, Texas and Tennessee are other states with SEC institutions that have no income tax.
So, this can be seen more as a leveling of the playing field just as much as it can be a recruiting advantage. Institutions across the country are operating under a patchwork of state laws. Lawmakers in Missouri and Texas have passed bills in recent years to prevent the NCAA from launching investigations into NIL activities.
Missouri’s NIL law even allows high school recruits to enter into NIL deals and start earning endorsement money as soon as they sign with in-state colleges.
Will Mississippi’s NIL bill become a law? As with everything else, anything can happen. But the smart money would be yes, it’ll pass the Senate and Reeves will sign it. Even if it doesn’t, the state has already started the process of phasing out the state income tax.
At the end of the day, this is just another example of how fast the recruiting world shifts and how states are scrambling to keep up.
Mississippi isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. It’s trying to make sure its schools aren’t starting a step behind everyone else.
Whether the bill becomes law or not, the direction is obvious: NIL isn’t going away, and the programs that adapt quickest are the ones that will stay competitive.
Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and everyone else in the state just need the rules to give them a fair shot.
