The NCAA has voted to start allowing their athletes to make money off of their likeness. In September, California voted to allow college athletes to get paid off of endorsements and employ agents. This has pushed the NCAA to vote on the issue, which resulted in them allowing athletes to make money based on their image. 

This is a huge change for the NCAA. Previously, they held the stance that the players could not make any money off of their athletic skills. Now, players will be able to make money in college, which is really helpful for them and their futures.

This is important because for the most part college athletes don’t go pro off of the sport they play in college. According to the NCAA only 2% of college athletes go pro. This means that most college athletes aren’t going to make any money off of their chosen sport.

Tobie Kizer, a NYC iSchool junior, said, “This new rule will now mean players that fail in the NFL will still profit off of the work they put in during college.”

Along with this, college sports take up most of an athlete’s time. With workouts and practices athletes are busy throughout their whole day. Some sports take up to more than 40 hours a week, while most are between 30 and 40. 

As a result, college athletes are unable to work on their studies for school or get a job to make some money. The change in California legislation means that when this new rule comes into effect in 2023, athletes will be able to earn a living from their athletic ability.

Now, if it is after college and  an average player doesn’t go pro, they will have made money to start a life for themselves. If this doesn’t happen and the players aren’t allowed to make money earlier on, after college it is going to be hard for them to do well. 

Junior Lucas Gray said, “I think this change by the NCAA is a good thing. Since they’re such a low amount of college players going pro, college players need to get a kickstart to their life after college, especially for the players who don’t get a degree.”

This law will change the rules about players and their advantage based on their likeability.. Previously they were unable to do so, but now with the current rule shift they will be able to. This means that star players on big teams will now be able to get agents and make deals with sponsors. 

Players like Trevor Lawrence, star Clemson quarterback, would have been able to make well over a million dollars if this new rule had been in place in previous years. However, this change isn’t going to affect every college athlete.

This rule change will only affect the top athletes in each division. Endorsement deals aren’t going to be sent out to everyone so this change will mainly impact the top prospects in the sport.

Yet, now, players and teams can try and sell their image or likeness to local businesses who would want to promote their business with a local figurehead. This is one way that smaller players who don’t play for as big teams can make money. 

 That being said, this will add some enticement to becoming the best in the league and even make games more competitive and exciting. It will be interesting to see if these changes will affect the game played by the athletes.

Evan Haddican, a junior at the NYC iSchool, said, “I think that the enticement of money will make games more interesting and give players a stronger motive to perform better to gain exposure, which could lead to endorsements.”

Unfortunately, these changes will not take effect for a couple years but it is exciting to imagine what effect, if any, it will have on the players and the game.