The groundwork is set for the NCAA to drastically alter its definition of amateurism.
By this time next year, college athletes may have official clearance to become paid sponsors, able to earn money for their names, pictures and likenesses without compromising their eligibility.
Remember when Ohio State players got into trouble with the NCAA in 2010 for trading their own memories and equipment for tattoos?
Under the new rules being worked out in the NCAA, all of that would probably be fine. A report from the NCAA Federal and State Legislation Task Force laid out how we got here, what has been agreed, and what remains to be determined.
Much remains to be figured out, including how, exactly, to establish “sufficient guardrails to ensure that … the role of third parties in the NIL activities of student-athletes is regulated.”
Some questions and answers as the NCAA takes action to address athlete compensation, a thorny issue for the nation’s largest college sports governing body for more than 60 years.
Who will be permitted to pay the athletes?
The best way to answer that is by establishing who will not be able to pay athletes: the NCAA, the schools, and the conferences.
That doesn’t mean everyone else is ready to go – the NCAA task force said member schools should consider banning athletes from promoting things like alcohol, tobacco, and sports gambling. There is also a recommendation to limit what athletes can do with shoe and clothing companies, a source of heartache for college sports for a long time.
Will this be enough to satisfy lawmakers, both state and federal?
No. The NCAA is trying to reject attempts by states to force the association to open the free market for athletes. The NCAA also hopes to get help from Congress in the form of a federal law to override anything the states propose and to provide uniformity.
Reactions to the NCAA announcement by lawmakers ranged from cautiously optimistic (California State Sen. Nancy Skinner, the main proponent of state law on the issue, said it was a step in the right direction) to downright disparaging ( said Florida State Representative Chip LaMarca.) : “If the NCAA’s goal was to limit access, then they’ve achieved their goal.”)
