College athletes will share windfall they helped create
Bill signed by Newsom allows endorsement deals; NCAA calls it a ‘scheme’
SACRAMENTO >> Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill that will allow California athletes to earn money from the use of their names, images and likenesses, despite warnings from the National Collegiate Athletic Association that the measure would upend amateur sports.
Senate Bill 206 by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, garnered national attention, with athletes including NBA stars LeBron James and Draymond Green lauding the California effort to give college athletes a share of the windfall they help create for their universities and the NCAA. The bill passed the state Legislature unanimously.
Newsom signed the bill during an online-only episode of “The Shop,” a talk show from digital sports media company Uninterrupted that airs on HBO. The governor, appearing alongside James, the WNBA’s Diana Taurasi and former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon, said the new law addressed a “major problem for the NCAA.” The signing was recorded Friday but released Monday, according to Newsom’s office.
“It’s going to initiate dozens of other states to introduce similar legislation,” Newsom said on the show. “And it’s going to change college sports for the better by having now the interest finally of the athletes on par with the interests of the institutions. Now we’re rebalancing that power arrangement.”
Newsom, who played baseball at Santa
Clara University, said in September that, having been a student athlete, he had “very strong opinions on this subject.”
San Francisco 49ers player Richard Sherman, who played his college ball at Stanford, reacted Monday to the news.
“I hope it destroys the NCAA in general because I think it’s corrupt and it’s a bunch of people taking advantage of kids, and doing it under a mask of ‘fair play,’ ” Sherman said. “Even the things they’re suspending these kids for are ridiculous. You’re suspending kids for YouTube channels and they’re saying, ‘Oh it’s because other kids can’t do it.’ If you’re saying sell goods or start a YouTube channel, any kid in the university can do that, and that’s the part that’s unfair to student athletes. They’re say they’re protecting these kids from being taken advantage or they don’t want them to be seen as more favorable to anyone else, but you’re almost restricting them from doing the same things that other students are able to do, and that is the part where it’s getting crazy to me.
“This is going to even that out. It’s going to cripple the NCAA in a way where they start to bend, make it more fair and more of a symbiotic relationship between players and the NCAA, or it’s going to destroy them in general and it’s going to start a whole new way of college athletics in general, and I can respect that, too.”
Warriors star Draymond Green also weighed in Monday.
“Kudos to him. You know, Gov. Newsom, I think he’s been doing some great things since he’s taken over in office, and this is just another one of those great things that he’s done,” Green said. “I think it’ll definitely help move the needle. When you start talking the state of California, how much weight this state holds, for this state to be the first to do that is very special. As a former college athlete, that’s exciting.”
“You spend so much time in college broke, with no money, and yet everybody else was living very well,” Green continued. “The university is making a ton of money off your likeness. I mean, it is the most — like I think he used the word bankrupt model. And it is. It’s like, it doesn’t — it does not make any sense. I can make all the money off your likeness, and the moment you decide to make some money off your likeness, you can’t play here anymore. You’re ineligible. You’re suspended. It’s backwards.”
On Monday, the NCAA said it was considering “next steps in California.”
The bill prohibits the NCAA from barring a university from competition if its athletes are compensated for the use of their name, image or likeness beginning in 2023. NCAA rules strictly prohibit athletes from profiting in any way from their sports.
While the bill allows athletes to sign endorsement deals with major companies, it could also open up smaller opportunities that were previously prohibited, such as paid youth coaching positions. SB 206 still forbids schools from directly paying athletes.
“This is a game changer for student athletes and for equity in sports,” said James, who has been a vocal supporter of the bill. “Athletes at every level deserve to be empowered and to be fairly compensated for their work, especially in a system where so many are profiting off of their talents. Part of the reason I went to the NBA was to get my mom out of the situation she was in. I couldn’t have done that in college with the current rules in place.”
The NCAA sent a letter to Newsom in September while lawmakers were mulling the bill, calling it “unconstitutional” and a “scheme.” The letter was signed by NCAA President Mark Emmert and 21 other members of the organization’s board of governors. The NCAA urged California to hold off on the bill to give a working group formed earlier this year more time to examine the name, image and likeness issue.
“Right now, nearly half a million student-athletes in all 50 states compete under the same rules,” the letter read. “This bill would remove that essential element of fairness and equal treatment that forms the bedrock of college sports.”
On Monday, the NCAA issued a less terse statement, expressing concerns about states creating their own rules for college athletes.
“As more states consider their own specific legislation related to this topic, it is clear that a patchwork of different laws from different states will make unattainable the goal of providing a fair and level playing field for 1,100 campuses and nearly half a million student-athletes nationwide,” the NCAA said in the statement.
Skinner disputed assertions in the NCAA’s September letter, saying the sports association had resorted to threats because legal scholars had concluded her bill was on solid ground. Skinner said she hoped other states would pass similar legislation.
In September, a New York state senator introduced legislation similar to Skinner’s bill with the added provision that college athletic departments share 15% of annual revenue from ticket sales with student athletes.
“This is truly a historic moment for college athletes,” Skinner said.
Green had a perspective on what happens next: “You know, the president of the NCAA just kind of sit back and — he says a little bit but don’t say much at all because he don’t have to. Well, now you’ve got to speak up, and I’d love to see what his response is going to be to this, outside of oh, well, you’re going to be ineligible. Get out of here with that. Ain’t nobody worried about that no more, man.”