The N.C.A.A., National Collegiate Athletic Association, has recently implemented a new law that would allow college athletes to brand their name, image, and allow them to earn compensation as athletes. This surprise from the N.C.A.A. came shortly after California’s Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will enable athletes to hire agents and pursue endorsement deals.
There has always been a principle that student-athletes are not allowed to receive any more money on top of paid college admissions. The NCAA’s long philosophy of college students only being able to focus on school and earn a degree rather than earning money for playing sports.
California’s new law will be implemented in 2023. With California implementing this new law brings pressure to the NCAA needing to adapt to the new changes that are to come. The college sports industry has generated an estimated $14 billion just last year. But student-athletes have seen none of that money after undergoing mounting demands on their bodies and schedules.
With this new law, athletes will be able to promote products and companies, being able to trade on their renown for the first time. Governor Gavin Newsom was asked about the new law in an interview with The New York Times stating the las as, “a big move to expose the farce and to challenge a system that is outsized in its capacity to push back.”
Thousands of college athletes in California will be able to benefit from this. The NCAA has been studying the possibility to rewrite the rules on endorsements, with the news of California’s new law, they have said they will begin to “consider next steps in California,” according to the New York Times. As of October 2019, the NCAA has reached an agreement to change the rules of endorsement and “embrace change to provide the best possible experience for college athletes.” according to Michael V. Drake, chairman of the NCAA’s Board of Governors, interview with the Associated Press. The changes and drafts of the new bylaws will be worked on until April 2020 leaving the Final updates to the bylaws until January 2021. The Fair Pay for Play Act will go into law in 2023.
Sonoma State is a Division II NCAA college, having 14 teams registered in the NCAA. Baseball is one of the noteworthy sports at Sonoma State, with repeated conference championships in 2013 and 2014. The Men’s Basketball team has made 7 appearances to the NCAA Tournaments with their last on in 2017. With college athletes being paid for their athleticism how much will players being compensated for the amount of time and strain they put on their bodies. This brings the question of how much and how will the NCAA go about paying athletes? In an interview with Michael Gutierrez, Baseball player for Sonoma State, when asked about what he thinks about the new law, he said, “I think it’s complicated to pay college students,” “they need to find a way to pay Division I, II, and III athletes.” Gutierrez also mentioned how the amount of time that players put into training after their 3- 4-hour practices also comes into play. Some players do training of their own with weights while balancing studying for quizzes, tests, and trying to get homework done around their already busy schedule.
