Should college athletes be paid? This is a question that many people have argued over and try to act on. There is a great amount of public concern and fear about what would happen if athletes were permitted to get compensation or kickbacks. Many people are opposed to it and many people are for it. Big celebrities like Lebron James and Draymond Green are for it. The president of the NCAA is against it though. The question of should college athletes be paid or not is a difficult question to answer.
California has passed a bill that allows college athletes to earn money from the use of their names, images, and likenesses. This bill had gained national attention. There are many people for it and against it. Lebron James tweeted that. “College athletes can responsibly get paid for what they do and the billions they create”(@KingJames on Twitter). People who support the bill say similar things.
Right now college athletes aren’t allowed to do anything that could make them money. This means that they can’t promote their social media, model athletic wear, promote an autobiography, and things of that nature. The NCAA has stripped athletes’ name, image, and likeness away from them. Athletes are not university property and they are their own person.
Even though there is a lot of good with passing the bill there are still some fears of what could happen. If the bill become law it would obliterate the crucial distinction between college sports and professional sports. The schools in Californa would have an unfair recruiting advantage. The schools would be able to offer monetary incentives to athletes that other schools outside the state would not be able to. Those schools would not be able to compete in NCAA competitions because of the recruiting advantages they have.
The bill being passed could hurt the athletes. NCAA rules forbid the players from getting paid in whatever way. The bill creates local differences that would make it impossible to host fair national championships. Californa schools would have to be expelled for the willful breaking of NCAA rules. So instead of trying to help them get their identity back, it is putting them in jeopardy. Californa has to be very meticulous in how they implement the bill.
There is a bill that is being given to the governor of California that would restrict the NCAA to penalize universities for compensating athletes. The bill makes it so the NCAA is impervious to affect athletes receiving compensation. The bill would begin on January 1, 2023. This gives the NCAA a feasible amount of time to make changes to their rules and gives California time to introduce future legislation if changes are needed to make sure schools are not penalized. The NCAA and the Californa government needs to make sure they are not cursory with their actions.