The California legislature has yet to blink at the huff-and-puff bluff of NCAA president Mark Emmert.
The Los Angeles Times (via Sports Business Daily) reports that the so-called Fair Pay to Play Act has advanced from the California Assembly’s Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism & Internet Media Committee, despite threats from Emmert that California universities could be banned from competing for national championships if student-athletes are permitted to generate revenue from their names, images, and likenesses.
The bill prevents the NCAA from banning a school from competition if athletes receive compensation unrelated to payment from the university. The California Senate previously passed the bill; if the full Assembly follows suit and if Governor Gavin Newsom signs it into law, the Fair Pay to Play Act would become effective on January 1, 2023.
California is moving forward with the bill (which next goes to the Higher Education Committee) at a time when, via the Los Angeles Daily News, a bipartisan bill has emerged in the U.S. Congress that would allow college athletes to sign endorsement contracts. The NCAA, which has delayed for years any meaningful action on giving college athletes a chance to receive fair value for their skills, abilities, and sacrifices, quite possibly has waited too long -- and quite possibly is in the process of losing control over the situation.
If so, good. The scam (fueled in part by an NFL rule that essentially forces football players to spend three years at the college level under the guise of protecting them from grown men) has lasted for far too long. The sooner it ends, the better.