The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Pa. lawmakers move to allow student-athletes to profit off endorsements
Two Democratic state representatives from Allegheny County have announced that they plan to introduce the “Fair Pay To Play Act,” which will allow college athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness, in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
Dan Miller and Ed Gainey said their proposal is similar to the bill signed into law in California on Monday, which is scheduled to take effect in 2023. It will allow college athletes to be compensated for their work and effort with endorsement deals and other similar ventures.
“Athletes are forced to give up their rights and economic freedom,” Miller said, “while the colleges make hundreds of millions of dollars off their talent and likeness.
“This bill would help to balance the scales by allowing them to sign endorsements, earn compensation and hire agents to represent their interests in exchange for the work they do, and the benefit provided to the college.”
Penn State coach James Franklin was asked Tuesday what he thought of the proposal, which has drawn support from athletes across the country.
“There’s a lot going on about this right now,” Franklin said, “and our administration here at Penn State, as well as the Big Ten Conference, is following all of this closely. We’re going to have to continue to follow it closely, and we’re going to have to learn and we’re going to have to evolve.
“Everybody is very aware of it. We’ll continue to track it and come up with some plans that are specific to Penn State. There’s a window of time we’ve got to get it done in, but there’s no doubt that a lot of people are working on it right now.”
The Pennsylvania proposal will not include community colleges. Miller and Gainey said they’re trying to gain bipartisan support before they put it to a formal vote in the state House.
“Our student-athletes give their blood, sweat and tears to a sport they love,” Gainey said, “while colleges, universities and corporations reap the financial benefits of their work. If a college football head coach can earn $4.8 million for coaching ‘amateur student-athletes,’ and if corporations can earn billions of dollars using the players’ names and faces, then how is it not fair to them to earn some sort of financial compensation?
“We owe it to them to level the playing field.”
Lawmakers in Colorado, Florida, New York, South Carolina and Washington have said they’re also looking into a similar bill in their states.
••• A crew from HBO is at Penn State this week following the 12th-ranked Nittany Lions as they prepare to face Purdue Saturday (12 noon). Franklin said the Lions have had previous opportunities for cameras to take a behindthe-scenes look at the program. Along with athletic director Sandy Barbour and others, Franklin gave approval this time for several reasons.
“We’ve got such a wonderful university, program, history and tradition here and the community,” Franklin said, “that you want to make sure that everybody in the United States knows how special this place is.
“To be able to have somebody like HBO that has tremendous expertise in doing this, to be able to peek behind the curtain and allow people a more comprehensive review of how we do things, I think that’s important.”
Penn State will be one of four teams that will be featured in the HBO Sports series called “24/7 College Football.” It will premiere Wednesday night at 10 on HBO with an hour-long special on the Florida Gators. The Penn State episode will first air at 10 p.m. Oct. 9 on HBO.
“I think it’s going to be fun to watch just because it’s about us,” defensive tackle Robert Windsor said, “but nothing’s really changed. It’s just another camera in the room. Everyone is kind of going about their business as usual.”
Franklin said he doesn’t think the Penn State episode will be as “colorful” as some of the Hard Knocks episodes that follow NFL teams during training camp. He hopes it will be “authentic.”
••• The Nittany Lions coaches have changed the status of two Penn State freshmen after four games. Linebacker Lance Dixon and offensive tackle Caedan Wallace, who have played three games apiece, have been moved to “yellow light” status, meaning they probably won’t play in more than one game the rest of the way, unless they’re needed because of injuries.
Players will lose a year of eligibility if they play in more than four games.
“We’re going to try to hold Lance’s games for later in the year,” Franklin said. “We still feel like we could play him. But he’s just not getting enough reps now for it to make sense in burning his year.
“And that would be the same situation with Caedan Wallace, a guy who we were just playing on PAT and field goal teams. It didn’t make sense to burn his year for that.”