NCAA Basketball: Florida lawmaker proposes name, image and likeness bill
By Neil Adler
More NCAA basketball news as it pertains to the name, image and likeness issue, with a Florida politician introducing a bill on the topic.
California has become the first state to enable student-athletes in NCAA basketball and other college sports to profit off their own name, image and likeness. Other states, too, are also weighing in on the controversial debate.
Kionne McGhee, a Democrat in the Florida House of Representatives, has filed a bill, known as HB 251, that “Authorizes students participating in intercollegiate athletics to receive specified compensation; provides requirements for specified students, postsecondary educational institutions, certain organizations, & specified representatives; & creates Florida College System Athlete Name, Image, & Likeness Task Force,” according to the bill’s Web site.
HB 251 would become effective on July 1, 2020. California’s Fair Play to Pay Act, which Gov. Gavin Newsom revealed on Monday that he has signed it into law, would go into effect in 2023 and make it illegal for schools in that state to strip student-athletes of their scholarships, or their eligibility, if they generate money from their name, image and likeness.
Switching back to Florida, in addition to McGhee’s bill, USA Today sports projects reporter and editor Steve Berkowitz tweeted that a “spokesman for Fla. Rep. Chip LaMarca says another bill is coming.” It seems that momentum is apparently picking up steam on this issue in the Sunshine State, and other recent media articles indicate that fellow states like New York, Washington, Colorado, Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina are contemplating comparable laws to the one in California.
If more and more states follow the lead of the Golden State, that could increase the pressure on the NCAA to make changes to its policies surrounding student-athletes and name, image and likeness. After Newsom signed the Fair Play to Pay Act, the NCAA issued a statement, in which it acknowledged that “changes are needed to continue to support student-athletes, but improvement needs to happen on a national level through the NCAA’s rule-making process.”
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The NCAA has also formed its own working group to examine the name, image and likeness issue, and a final report from this group is expected to head to the NCAA’s board of governors this month. I’ve gone on record multiple times in advocating for student-athletes to possess the right to collect endorsement income, and if other states beyond California, such as Florida, can pass similar versions of the Fair Play to Pay Act, then the NCAA might actually do something about it.