The NCAA has been in hot water for, well forever depending on who you talk to, but even more so in recent years. A lightbulb has gone off in pretty much everyone’s head that holds a brain that it makes billions of dollars off of athletes they don’t pay, and that doesn’t seem right.
People land in two spots on the issue of paying college athletes.
You may think they should be paid because they make millions for their school and the NCAA from both an entertainment standpoint and off of their actual name. Or, you may be old school and think well, they are getting paid with their free education, and that should be good enough.The NCAA has shut down fundraisers for injured athletes, denied transfers and chances to play at schools due to crazy circumstances and even made kids give up that sacred scholarship for monetizing their YouTube videos.
California was the first state to actually do something to combat this and earlier this week Governor Gavin Newsom officially signed a bill into law that will allow student-athletes in California to make money off of their name, image, and likeness. It will not be instituted until 2023 however.
With the news breaking, plenty of student-athletes have been voicing their opinions on whether or not players should be paid for their likeness and shockingly enough, they agree that they should. Yes, college athletes that realize they make millions for their schools think they should get a cut of the pie. Who would’ve thunk it?
Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields had a pretty strong answer about the issue. Interestingly enough, Ohio State’s athletic director and head football coach are very much against the law.
“I think some student-athletes need the money, of course, because not every student-athlete grows up in the same background; some student-athletes have poorer backgrounds than others. I haven’t really thought about it much, but I definitely think that some should be paid, in terms of the way they’ve grown up.”
Fields’ heart and mind seem to be in the right place here. Some kids get to college broke and sure, they may leave with a piece of paper with their name on it, but they leave college broke as well.
Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger is on board too.
“I think it’s a great start. I still believe that players should benefit off their likeness, things of that nature. I don’t know the details of how it should be in play. And that’s not up to me. I’m not a lawmaker. I’m not going to create anything. I believe in players being able to benefit from that, but I don’t know what that looks like necessarily.”
I think it may be tough to find a big-time college athlete that would be against making money off of their name. Who’s going to say no to free money, and chances are a fat stack of money at that?
As all of this continues to develop, the grey area is how do you decide on the amount of money? Does the quarterback get the same amount of money as the team’s No. 5 wide receiver? The quarterback is making the school and NCAA way more money than the other guy, but how’s the wide receiver going to respond to that?
One thing seems to be certain, by the year 2023 college athletics are going to look very, very different.
[H/T The Big Lead]
