On September 30, California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, signed the Fair Pay to Play act, which allows college athletes in California to seek compensation for their name, likeness, or image, as well as allows student-athletes the opportunity to hire a licensed agents. The bill is effective on January 2023. The bill states that student-athletes will not be paid through the institutions, but have the opportunity to engage in endorsements and commercial uses of their name, likeness, or image. Several other states have considered similar laws in relation to a student-athlete’s compensation of their name, likeness, or image.
According to the California SB 206 bill, also known as the Fair Pay to Play act, all four-year private universities, University of California campuses, or California State University campuses that receive an average of $10,000,000 or more in annual revenue derived from media rights for intercollegiate athletics must comply. The Fair Pay to Play act also prevents the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) or any other organization, institution, or conference from preventing the compensation of the student-athletes or revoking their scholarship for engaging in endorsement deals.
In a New York Times interview, Newsom said, “Every single student in the university can market their name, image and likeness; they can go and get a YouTube channel and they can monetize that. The only group that can’t are athletes.”
The NCAA believes the Fair Pay to Play act will create an unfair recruiting advantage for California schools. In the initial reaction to this bill, the NCAAA stated it “would result in [California schools] eventually being unable to compete in NCAA competitions.” However, in their response following the signing of the bill, they did not threaten the inability to compete, but it was mentioned they will consider their next steps in California. The NCAA also recognized that improvements need to be made, however, they believe it should done on a national level, through the NCAA process, not through individual state laws.
“As a membership organization, the NCAA agrees changes are needed to continue to support student-athletes, but improvement needs to happen on a national level through the NCAA’s rules-making process…We will consider next steps in California while our members move forward with ongoing efforts to make adjustments to NCAA name, image and likeness rules that are both realistic in modern society and tied to higher education.”
As mentioned before, several other states are considering similar laws, however, the NCAA is hoping to have a national solution before more laws are passed that contradict the current NCAA bylaws. In May 2019, the NCAA developed a working group to modernize the current NCAA bylaws in relation to this bill. The working group recommendations are due in October to the board. In the initial response, the NCAA stated they “hope [California] will be a constructive partner in [their] efforts to develop a fair name, image and likeness approach for all 50 states.” The current bill includes the ability collaborate and “implement significant findings and recommendations of the NCAA working group in furtherance of the statutory changes proposed by this act.” In an interview with ESPN, the chair of the NCAA board of governors, Michael Drake, said he expects a national resolution before 2023, which would make the California bill irrelevant.
Sources:
California Bill Text – SB206
NCAA statement on Gov. Newsom signing SB 206
NCAA responds to California Senate Bill 206
New York Times: N.C.A.A. Athletes Could Be Paid Under New California Law
ESPN: Calif. Senate OKs athlete bill NCAA calls harmful