Over the years, the debate about whether or not college athletes should be paid has circulated as a topic of controversy. One side of the argument believes college athletes should get paid because they generate so much money for broadcast stations and universities that they deserve compensation. However, the other side argues that these are still kids playing at an amateur sports level, not professional, and that their scholarships hold sufficient. Both sides have some truth, but it seems the advocates for paying college players have started to outweigh those who think they shouldn’t get paid.
In recent news, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Board of Governors announced that they support rule changes allowing student-athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness. These rule changes would now allow players to receive compensation for social media and personal appearances, possible advertisements, and some other regulated activity.
While the rule would allow for a lot of new territory to be entered, some things remain prohibited such as the universities directly paying their players and the players profiting off the school logo and conference name.
While this new rule change is currently not in place, Division I, II and III colleges all plan on adopting the changes for this upcoming season. This means that the change would officially come into effect at the start of the 2021-2022 academic year.
The move to allow players to profit off their name has been highly anticipated this year, as the NCAA faced a lot of pressure by the public. The first signs of this rule actually changing came in September 2019, when Calif. Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill allowing college athletes to profit from endorsements and hire agents.
Now in May, many have followed Newsom’s initiative including the NCAA board, and measures will soon be put in place to allow athletes to have the chance to make money they believe they earned.
