https://archive.org/details/legalgeekep189
California's legislature passed a bill entitled the "Fair Pay to Play Act" recently and governor Gavin Newsome signed this to make it a law become effective in 2023. The law prohibits the NCAA, the organization that regulates college athletics in the US, from punishing students who earn money through use of their names, images, or likeness. This law is in direct contravention to a long-standing NCAA rule that made athletes ineligible if they made money from their status as college athletes.
In short, an athlete will be able to do an autograph signing or an endorsement deal using their fame to make some money without suffering any eligibility concerns, just like other non-athlete students can do currently. If you've got fame from whatever source and can monetize it, now you will be able to.
The debate over college athlete compensation is a long one and we've covered other developments including some private university players considering unionizing. At every step of the process, college administrators and the NCAA have argued that competitive balance would be undermined and that college sports would be in jeopardy as a whole if such reforms are made. Yet when previous reforms like providing food to players and providing stipends to players occurred, the world of college athletics did not really end.
Instead of pushing out ahead of these lawmakers and being forward-thinking, the NCAA and its member institutions have continued the company line about the importance of amateurism in college athletics. But as the revenue generated off these sports and athletes has grown and grown, the calls for some additional compensation have become impossible to ignore. So instead of having a chance to craft player compensation in a way that works best for the NCAA and its stated goals, now the organization will need to be reactive to what state and federal lawmakers are imposing on them, perhaps ending up in a worse place than if they had been proactive on player compensation.
To this end, many other state legislatures immediately introduced similar legislation as the Fair Pay to Play Act this week after California signed it into law. Anthony Gonzalez, a U.S. congressman and former football player, is also introducing a federal bill for consideration along the same lines. The federal government could avoid any state-by-state inconsistencies and this is likely where the NCAA will try to make their last stand against this part of amateurism. If recent case and legislature actions are any guide, the outcome won't go well for the NCAA.
The Bottom Line is: as with many legal issues, this all boils down to money. There's simply too much money in college athletics, especially football and basketball, without any significant compensation going to the athletes who make these sports exist in the first place. There will continue to be debates on how to fairly compensate the efforts of these players beyond Name and Likeness rules, but this is a huge step in redefining what NCAA amateur athletics will be in the future.
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