Florida governor signs college athlete NIL compensation bill

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed into law a bill that will allow college athletes in the state to earn money from endorsement deals.

The law won’t go into effect until July 2021. By then, both the NCAA and Congress could have rules or legislation in place to lift restrictions on college athletes being paid for the use of their names, images and likenesses.

Florida is the third state, joining California and Colorado, to pass an NIL law targeting current NCAA rules that restrict college athlete compensation.

Florida’s law, however, increases the urgency for the NCAA to act because it goes into effect 18 months earlier than California’s and Colorado’s. More than 20 more states are working on similar legislation.

The NCAA’s board of governors signed off in April on recommendations to allow athletes access to a free market — with “guardrails” — while also emphasizing that it will need help from Congress to avoid a patchwork of state laws. The NCAA wants its own legislation ready for a vote in January.

Baseball

MLB OFFERS PLAYERS 80% OF PRORATED SALARIES, 72-GAME SEASON » Major League Baseball has offered players 80% of their prorated salaries and a 72game regular season in an effort to start the pandemicdelayed season, according to details of the proposal obtained by The Associated Press

Players would get 70% of their prorated salaries during the regular season and the rest for completion of the postseason.

The players’ last offer, on Tuesday, was for an 89game regular season at full prorated pay.

Pro basketball

NBA GIVES TEAMS, PLAYERS MORE DETAILED SCHEDULE » The NBA gave teams a more definitive timetable for the restart to the pandemic-interrupted season, including required coronavirus testing that is set to begin this month and mandatory individual workouts in early July before training camps.

The league gave teams the go-ahead to immediately start allowing two assistant coaches to deal with voluntary player workouts. NBA head coaches can be one of those two coaches involved in the voluntary sessions starting June 23.

June 23 is significant in another way as well. That would be the first day players on the 22 teams that will be going to the Disney campus would be required to undergo coronavirus testing conducted by those teams.

Pro football

BROWN GETS PROBATION FOR FIGHT WITH DRIVER » NFL free agent Antonio Brown pleaded no contest to charges related to a fight with a moving truck driver outside his South Florida home earlier this year.

As part of a deal with Broward County prosecutors, Brown pleaded no contest to burglary with battery, burglary of an unoccupied conveyance and criminal mischief. He will serve two years of probation, undergo a psychological evaluation and followup treatment, attend an anger management course, perform 100 hours of community service and follow a stay-away order from the truck driver and the moving company owner.

Judge Edward Merrigan Jr. withheld adjudication, meaning Brown won’t receive a criminal conviction on his record if he successfully completes his probation.