Image courtesy of The San Diego Union Tribune
College sports is a billion-dollar industry, with top schools like Texas A&M generating over $190 million in sports revenue, according to Business Insider. In the 2015 fiscal year, the 231 Division I schools generated $9.15 billion in sports revenue with 24 of those schools making over $100 million every year. Despite the copious amounts of money being produced, the student athletes who are at the source of the entertainment receive none of the profit.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, is the regulatory body in charge of creating these restrictions and has recently been challenged when California passed the “Fair Pay to Play Act” on September 30. The act allows college athletes in California to accept endorsement money and hire agents starting in 2023. Although the bill doesn’t allow athletes to sign deals that conflict with their school’s sponsors, it is a major movement against the NCAA’s long-standing rules that student athletes should not be making money off of sponsorships. Many say this act has been long-awaited, because if the schools and the NCAA can make millions off of these athletes, the students should have every right to benefit financially as well. This new law could incentivize student athletes to stay in school instead of dropping out, or heading to the big leagues straight from high school without receiving any higher education which could benefit them after their athletic careers are over.
California could be a trendsetter for other states to sign similar laws, but until then, this could create an unfair recruiting advantage for them. From the school’s perspective, this could create confusion on how the recruiting process will change. Pac-12, a collegiate athletic conference in the western US that includes schools in California, has come out saying they don’t support the new law because they “firmly believe all reforms must treat our student athletes as students pursuing an education, and not as professional athletes.” It is expected that the NCAA will come back with legal backlash as they have already said the bill is “unconstitutional.”
Even though it is still uncertain if the NCAA will be successful in their fight against the bill, “the ability of student-athletes to monetize their name and image is probably inevitable,” according to David Carter, a University of Southern California sports business professor. This change in the college sports landscape could create further issues of inequality between male and female athletes and blur the lines between professional and amateur sports.
Regina Rivera
