New NCAA regulations have allowed players to profit from their name, image and likeness as long as they fit within the “collegiate model.” Announced Oct. 29, these new rules allow NCAA players to profit as long as student-athletes are treated similarly to non-athlete students, maintain priorities of education and the collegiate experience, subject to fair regulation and enforcement, and aren’t profiting for performance or recruitment.
This long list of broad limits leaves a lot up for interpretation, and a lot of ways to limit the profits of collegiate athletes. Instead, all student athletes should be allowed to profit off of their name, image and likeness without limits, and given their full economic rights.
While this may at first seem like ground-breaking news, many criticize it as a move for the NCAA to get ahead of acts like the California “Fair to Play” Act which have been passed or discussed in many parts of the country. California’s “Fair to Play” Act was signed into law in late September and allowed players to begin to receive endorsements and hire agents while in college. This did, however, usurp NCAA regulations which specifically banned these very actions. The NCAA originally called the bill
an “existential threat” to college sports and threatened to kick out California schools who violated their laws, but have now flipped their stance.
Not only does this recent rule change by the NCAA appear to be an attempt to get out in front of challenging laws, but it will lessen the ability for athletes to profit as they would have under “Fair to Play” and similar acts. Applying the “collegiate model” provision to the new rules allows for broad interpretation by officials, and likely very little profit for athletes. In other words, full economic rights are not being given to student-athletes, as some may have thought.
In conclusion, the NCAA missed their mark with the new rule change. To reach full equity, all student athletes should be allowed to profit off of their name, image and likeness without limits. If the NCAA wants to maintain the billion dollar industry they’ve created, full economic rights should be given to the players it feeds off of.
