SACRAMENTO — The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s surprise decision Tuesday to allow student athletes to earn endorsement money was spurred by an unlikely alliance of states that typically disagree on everything from abortion to immigration.
Pressure from states, with California taking the lead and Florida, New York and New Jersey quickly piling on, broke down a longstanding NCAA rule prohibiting student athletes from earning money from endorsements and other outside sponsorships.
Their stand appears all but certain to change the landscape of college sports. On Tuesday, the NCAA Board of Directors voted unanimously to allow students to financially benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness "in a manner consistent with the collegiate model.”
The vote comes after more than a decade of complaints and festering cynicism over the status of student athletes — who earn nothing while their colleges and coaches reap riches — and just a month after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Fair Pay to Play Act on the set of LeBron James’ HBO show, “The Shop.”
“Without the public clearly on the side of the rights of student athletes, and the governor signing my bill, and the rest of the states following suit, the NCAA absolutely wouldn't have acted,” said California state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), who authored the legislation Newsom signed. “Whether you come from the fact that this has been an exploitation of black athletes or come at it from that it’s just a violation of every free-market principle ... it's a change that was so ripe for right now.”
A profusion of similar state and federal efforts have since kicked off to fight the billion-dollar behemoth that is the NCAA.
On Oct. 24, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, an ardent sports fan and former Yale baseball captain, said he would back legislation to allow student athletes to profit from their names and likenesses.
The Republican was struck to get behind the movement while watching a football game at the University of Florida’s stadium, commonly called “The Swamp.” As he watched the Florida Gators and Auburn University duke it out in Gainesville, Fla., he wondered why members of the marching band could make money on YouTube, but the players couldn’t.
The issue has bipartisan support in Florida and is “gonna have legs,” DeSantis told reporters Tuesday as NCAA leaders huddled in Atlanta.
DeSantis credited California for opening the door, but said that another powerhouse college athletic state joining the fray added to the resistance that turned the tide. Florida is home to the University of Florida, Florida State University, the University of Miami and other schools with massive athletic programs that battle to win top recruits.
The argument in the Sunshine State has centered on athletes deserving to participate in an economy that was built on the backs of students. Social media platforms are ripe for student athletes to cash in, lawmakers have noted, but they’re forbidden by current NCAA rules from doing so.
Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada and Pennsylvania are among those following the Golden State’s lead. All are weighing legislation to allow student athletes to be paid in outright defiance of the NCAA.
“It’s about time. The status quo was clearly unacceptable,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said in an interview on News 12 late Tuesday.
The political talking points of state lawmakers vary, but the central sentiment and intended outcome are the same: Student athletes should be allowed to benefit from their talents.
The NCAA, the Pacific-12 Conference, coaches and others have fought state efforts to make their own rules, saying a patchwork of policies would cause confusion and the “professionalization” of college sports would create an unfair playing ground for half a million student athletes nationwide.
“We must embrace change to provide the best possible experience for college athletes," Michael Drake, NCAA board chair and president of Ohio State University, said in a statement Tuesday.
A wave of state-level bipartisanship has quickly rolled over those arguments. And the NCAA’s vote on Tuesday won’t stop state lawmakers from adopting their own rules and creating the patchwork the association is trying to prevent.
New Jersey state Sen. Joseph Lagana (D-Bergen), a former college athlete who is sponsoring student athlete legislation, said piecemeal legislation isn’t ideal but had to happen.
“Sometimes you need to send a shot across the bow for things to get moving,” he said.
On the liberal West coast, racial justice issues have taken center stage in the debate to reform an industry where predominantly white coaches are being compensated while black athletes who sacrifice their bodies for certain sports are not.
During committee hearings in Sacramento this summer, Los Angeles Chargers football player Russell Okung, who is black, told lawmakers that the NCAA uses exploitative policies and “outdated logic rooted in slavery.”
Meanwhile, red states including Kentucky and South Carolina have joined the fight, calling it a common-sense free market proposal.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, a former Republican presidential candidate, and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, who is vying for the Democratic presidential nomination, have both called for NCAA reform this month despite being political polar opposites on other policy issues.
Former UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi spoke out earlier this month against not being able to benefit from her stellar senior year, including being metaphorically “handcuffed” by the NCAA, she said, which restricted her from receiving a YouTube check for her perfect floor routine that went viral earlier this year.
“For us to regulate their ability to monetize what they’ve built up over time strictly because they’re student athletes, it goes against a free market,” Florida state Rep. Kionne McGhee (D-Cutler Bay) told POLITICO. McGhee and Chip LaMarca (R-Lighthouse Point) have each filed student athlete bills in Florida.
While the NCAA received praise for Tuesday’s decision — a move that followed months of threats from the athletic association that if the California legislation passed it could lead to the state’s schools being disqualified from competitions — state lawmakers aren’t backing off.
“California will be closely watching as the NCAA’s process moves forward to ensure the rules ultimately adopted are aligned with the legislation we passed this year,” Newsom said in a statement Tuesday.
LaMarca said he is cautiously optimistic.
“We will continue working to make sure they keep the promises they have made to our student athletes today,” he said in a written statement.
Miami Dolphins player Davon Godchaux issued a statement praising the Florida legislation, and gave states credit.
“If this is something that made the NCAA comfortable,” he said, “they would have done this a long time ago.”
Carly Sitrin contributed to this report.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine
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