NCAA votes to allow college athletes to make money from their fame
The NCAA, the largest governing body of college sports, has taken the first step toward allowing athletes to cash in on their fame. Its board of governors voted unanimously on Tuesday to clear the way for college athletes to “benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness”.
The NCAA realized that it “must embrace change to provide the best possible experience for college athletes,” the board said in a statement issued after the vote at Emory University in Atlanta.
The NCAA and its member schools must now figure out how to allow athletes to profit while still maintaining rules regarding amateurism. The board has asked each of the NCAA’s three divisions to come up with new rules and have them in place no later than January 2021.
“The board is emphasizing that change must be consistent with the values of college sports and higher education and not turn student-athletes into employees of institutions,” said board chair Michael V Drake.
A group of NCAA administrators have been exploring ways in which athletes could receive compensation for the use of their names, images and likenesses. The task force, which has been working on the problem since May, presented a status report Tuesday to the board, composed of university presidents.
The NCAA’s shift comes a month after California passed a law that would make it illegal for NCAA schools in the state to prohibit college athletes from making money on such activities as endorsements, autograph signings and advertising on social media. California’s law goes into effect in 2023. More than a dozen states have followed with similar legislation; some are hoping to have laws in effect as soon as 2020.
The NCAA has said state laws that contradict the national governing body’s rules could lead to athletes being declared ineligible or schools not being allowed to compete.
There is also a federal bill in the works that could prevent the NCAA and its member schools from restricting its athletes from selling the rights to their names, images and likenesses to thirdparty buyers on the open market.