Students athletes just get enough to pave their way through college. But Governor Gavin Newsom tried changing that long tradition by introducing a new bill. In the New California Law, college athletes will be able to hire agents and do endorsements and earn from it. Even though the new law comes to effect on 2023, it threatens the ideology of college sports. The current tradition mostly focuses on students playing to earn a degree and not money.
According to the law, athletes will be able to endorse companies and products. It is for the first time that this happens in the state of California. But it isn’t long before other states also follow the lead of California and change their ways.
Newsom is all up for supporting athletes. He said that if all are able to monetize their efforts why not the college athletes. He said that “Every single student in the university can market their name, image and likeness; they can go and get a YouTube channel, and they can monetize that, the only group that can’t are athletes. Why is that?”
In the Pacific-12 Conference there was a talk about how the change in the law would lead to professionalization of sports and unpredictable consequences. N.C.A.A. and the Pac-12 are against the measure, as so are several powerful universities, including California, Stanford and Southern California.
It was Senator Nancy Skinner, a Democrat, who wrote the legislation. And she said that the college athletes are bound by the laws of N.C.A.A. And they don’t get enough compensation for their talents. That’s why things need to change.
There are few who support the bill. Among them Senator Brian Jones, a Republican from San Diego County is one who thinks that the laws should change.
Newsom signed the bill with drama. He did so during an episode of a television show hosted by LeBron James. He is the Los Angeles Lakers star and a prominent supporter of the legislation.