State Sen. Ricky Hill (R-Cabot) has filed a bill to prevent state-funded medical schools from spending money on the name, image and likeness of student-athletes.

Avid watchers of college athletics have seen plenty of TV ads from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, featuring Arkansas Razorbacks such as football player Jalen Catalon, basketball player Nick Smith, Jr. and others.

Hill happens to be a graduate of Arkansas State University and even founded the ASU Rodeo Club before going on to compete on the professional rodeo circuit.

Here’s what Hill’s campaign site says:

While at ASU, Ricky founded the ASU Rodeo Club and competed as a bull rider on the ASU Rodeo team. This led to him joining the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and competing on the professional rodeo circuit for 4 years. During this time, he married his wife Cynthia who was a professional barrel racer.

We don’t recall seeing any UAMS ads featuring athletes from Arkansas State or any other Arkansas university for that matter.

UAMS Health is the official orthopaedics and sports medicine provider for Razorback athletics and provides daily medical coverage all 19 Razorback athletic programs, according to the UAMS Health website.

Hill’s bill is Senate Bill 456.

Here’s the UAMS ad with Catalon:

UPDATE:

Leslie Taylor, vice chancellor for communications and marketing at UAMS, has provided a response:

UAMS has not utilized NIL contracts in advertising for our medical school or any of our other colleges. However, Razorback athletes have been featured in advertising for our health system, UAMS Health, which is proud to be the official orthopaedics and sports medicine provider for Razorback athletics. The athletes featured in advertising are just a few of those who have been cared for by UAMS orthopaedic surgeons and sports medicine specialists who attend games, practices, and work with the athletes throughout the year. No taxpayer dollars are used to pay for advertising. UAMS is different than other universities that receive state funding in that we don’t receive the majority of our funding from the state. Rather we are dependent on revenue generated by our clinical programs. Our state appropriation is about 6 percent of UAMS’ nearly $2 billion budget. Earned clinical income from the hospital and health system subsidizes our education and research missions.

We are proud to be aligned with athletic programs at our sister institution, the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, just as we are proud to provide care to athletes at other UA System schools including UA Little Rock, UA Monticello and UA Pine Bluff. We are making plans to feature some of the other athletic programs we support in upcoming advertising. As the state’s largest public employer, UAMS has many ASU graduates who proudly support the Red Wolves. We would be pleased to take care of any of those athletes as well.

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