The NCAA on Tuesday opened the door to college athletes being able to profit from their own names and likenesses, and finally share in the billions of dollars their athletic prowess brings to colleges and universities across the country.
In a news release, the college sports governing body indicated that it was willing to discuss the opportunity for college athletes “to benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness in a manner consistent with the collegiate model,” according to the Washington Post.
The body voted unanimously to begin figuring out how to update their rules, but it was not clear what the way forward would entail to allow college ballers to get the bag.
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In fact, on Tuesday, the organization reiterated its opposition to recent California legislation that would allow college athletes to get corporate sponsorship deals, charge for autographs and the like.
It stated, per the Post:
“The California law and other proposed measures ultimately would lead to pay for play and turn college athletes into employees,” the NCAA said Tuesday after a meeting of its leadership in Emory University in Atlanta. “This directly contradicts the mission of college sports within higher education — that student-athletes are students first and choose to play a sport they love against other students while earning a degree.”
The NCAA’s move, however, is seen as a step forward on an issue that has garnered the attention of lawmakers and activists, who say the current system exploits student athletes to the benefit of the schools for which they play.
As ESPN reports, the NCAA is looking to have new rules for college athletes to play by in place by January 2021:
The board members said in a release Tuesday that all changes should make sure student-athletes have the same opportunities to make money as all other students, maintain the priorities of education and the collegiate experience, and ensure that rules are “transparent, focused and enforceable” and do not create a competitive imbalance. The board wants each division to implement new rules by January 2021.
