California’s college athletes gained the ability Wednesday to profit from their name, image and likeness after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to accelerate the state’s 2019 law allowing them to do so.
The 2019 Fair Pay to Play Act was originally scheduled to go into effect in January 2023, allowing all student athletes at public and private four-year colleges to profit from their name, image or likeness; hire sports agents; and keep their scholarships if they profit as a result of the sport they play.
The Fair Pay to Play Act has now gone into effect Wednesday after Newsom signed a bill authored by state Sens. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, and Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, in light of the NCAA’s decision in June to formally allow college athletes to profit regardless of where their school is located.
Senate Bill 26, the legislation Newsom signed Tuesday, also expanded the Fair Pay to Play Act to include community colleges across the state and allow athletes to identify which school they attend in their commercial products.
“I’m proud to build on our leadership with today’s legislation to expand and protect our college athletes’ rights to reap the rewards from their sacrifices and success,” Newsom said in a statement.
The Fair Pay to Play Act includes some limitations, including preventing athletes from signing endorsement deals with brands that conflict with the brand deals their school already has in place.
SB 26 passed unanimously through both chambers of the Legislature, Skinner noted.
“We were the first state to grant college athletes the right to earn money from their name, image, and likeness with SB 206, the Fair Pay to Play Act, two years ago,” Skinner said.
“And we sparked a national movement against the NCAA’s exploitation of college athletes, with more than 25 states joining our cause.”
10 comments
This is basically correct law. Athletes should not be cut out of any profit that their work creates. However, college athletics have become a grotesque monster that pervert the missions of higher education. If you want to go throw a ball around, great, do that. That there even exists such a thing as an athletic scholarship shows how far institutions have strayed. UC Berkeley should be training physicists and chemists, not enabling gifted athletes to extend their high school life for a few more years.
UC Berkeley does BOTH.
It’s about time that the athletes are able to profit off of their name and “brand” and not the powers that be at the NCAA!
Newsom is really grasping at straws now. What a loser.
College students don’t vote. Idiot.
So, what you are saying is that politicians should only do what gets them votes and not what is right.
@Pyrrhus All Newsom did was fast track a law that was already changed in 2019 and was set to go into effect in 2023. Whether the law is right or not is a moot point. It’s a done deal.
Why fast track? What was his motivation? You think it was for the betterment of college athletes?
Aren’t they already getting a free ride? I think they can wait until they get out of school.
No, many are not and many will not turn pro. Yes they will be able to get a typical sales/office job after college but why should the NCAA profit BILLIONS off of you and you can’t even get an extra cookie from the cafeteria without expelling your entire eligibility.
These kids work had to build their skills on the fields, let them sign autographs for money and earn endorsements until they can join the rat race workforce after graduation.
California and Newsom did play a major part in this so good for them.
Any kid that can make money off of his name is not paying for school.
Ummm…
Any student/athlete that is able to make money off of their name is only because they are a gifted athlete and one that is ALREADY on an athletic scholarship.
The NCAA makes a little over $1.0 BILLION in TV contract revenue for their annual “March Madness” Basketball Tournament.
The Tournament generates close to $1.3 BILLION in National TV Advertising Revenue alone.
It’s about time that the athletes who are providing the “entertainment” content of the TV programming are compensated.
California and Gov. Newsom drove this change.
Kudos!
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