The NCAA has finally ruled on the long-standing controversy as to whether or not student-athletes should be allowed to make money in college.
The NCAA’s board of directors made a massive announcement today that it would now be legal for players to use their name, image and likeness as a means of making money during their collegiate career:
It’s long-been a point of controversy that the NCAA really hasn’t budged on. They’ve always stated that they looked at college athletics as an “amateur” sport and viewed their players as such.
Many people have argued over the years that most college athletes put in as much work as a lot of people with a full-time job do, all while their school makes millions of dollars off of them and they never seeing a dime of the money, even after they graduate.
NCAA president Mark Emmert told ESPN it was finally time to adapt and bend some of the rules that no longer fit the ever-evolving tide of college sports:
“This is an important day for college athletes since they all are now able to take advantage of name, image and likeness opportunities.
With the variety of state laws adopted across the country, we will continue to work with Congress to develop a solution that will provide clarity on a national level.
The current environment — both legal and legislative — prevents us from providing a more permanent solution and the level of detail student-athletes deserve.”
According to ESPN, it also means that players can monetize their social media accounts, make money from autographs, teaching camps, advertising campaigns, and other opportunities along those lines.
Athletes can now even sign with an agent to help them further their college careers and opportunities that fall under the aforementioned umbrella of options.
Certain things will still be considered illegal under this rule change, and schools will still be barred from using money as a means of recruiting. This new set of rules only applies to players who are already playing any given sport at their respective college.
For states that have NIL (name, image & likeness) laws on the books, for now, the schools are instructed to follow whatever the state policy is. They’re continuing to work towards national guidance that will be cohesive for every NCAA school in the various states across the country.
There are several big-name college players that already have deals lined up and are expected to announce them starting tomorrow morning.
Regardless of what happens under these new laws, this is one of the biggest things to ever happen in college sports and will be transformative for both the players and the schools alike.
The NCAA posted the official news a little while ago:
And, former Texas linebacker and current Fox Sports 1 analyst Emmanuel Acho is already chiming in with his opinions on the news:
I’m sure there’s plenty of former NCAA athletes out there that are a little bit jealous, especially people who ever violated the policy that prohibited them from making money and were reprimanded for it. There’s probably going to be a lot of old rulings to overturn now, too.
Like Emmanuel mentioned, this is going to be massive for football and basketball schools that literally make the majority of their income for their athletics budget as a whole off of those two sports alone (and that’s most NCAA schools in the country).
I mean, the power five and group of five NCAA football schools have multi-million dollar programs, so to me it’s always seemed fair that the players at least have a chance to make a little money, as long as it falls within the guidelines and doesn’t interfere with the recruiting process.
I can only imagine what people like Tim Tebow, Deion Sanders, Herschel Walker, Peyton Manning, and countless other greats would’ve made during their college careers…
If you follow college sports closely, especially college football, I have a feeling it’s about to get wild this season:
