Florida is seeks to bring swift justice with an earlier effective date. As states fight for fairness on behalf of their college athletes, the NCAA asks Congress to undermine the effort...
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill today that will allow college athletes to hire agents and be paid for use of their name, image, and likeness. This expedites the timeline for reform on this issue as it will become effective on July 1, 2021, which is well before the 2023 effective date of a similar California law.
NCPA Executive Director Ramogi Huma stated, “The NCAA and its colleges have monopolized college athletes’ commercial value for far too long. Players are people not university property. They deserve the same freedoms afforded to other students and Americans, the right to secure representation and earn money off their own name.”
As a part of the NCPA’s push to enact similar laws nationwide, Huma advocated in support of this bill during discussions with the majority of the members of the Florida House of Representatives, state senators, and the governor’s office.
The NCAA has launched an expensive lobbying effort in an attempt to convince Congress to roll back key freedoms making their way to athletes in Florida and California. At least 26 other states are pursuing similar name, image, and likeness legislation. The NCAA claims it would be impossible to govern college sports with a patchwork of different laws.
Huma stated, “That’s nonsense. The NCAA, conferences, and universities are complying with very different COVID-19 orders across countless states, counties, and cities, which proves that this is not true. Businesses navigate different jurisdictional laws all the time. The NCAA should not be above the law.”
Chip LaMarca, the Florida lawmaker who led this effort stated, “For far too long, the collegiate athletic system professionalized everyone associated with athletics except for the young women and men who put in all the hard work. Today, we changed that.”
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