INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The NCAA is making a change to allow student-athletes to make money from their endorsement deals.
That’s traditionally been limited because the organization wanted to preserve the amateur nature of college sports. However, the National Collegiate Athletic Association voted unanimously to let student-athletes benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness.
The organization wants to make it clear that student-athletes are not employees. They will not be paid for what they do “on the field.”
Chair of the NCAA, Michael Drake, said, “We believe very much in our collegiate model of sport, we think that our student-athletes — 500,000 student-athletes — have a unique group of opportunities across the country and colleges large and small. It’s been a wonderful and life-affirming opportunity for so many student-athletes. Many people will attest to that today. And we want to do everything we can to maintain this great opportunity for our opportunity student-athletes. We differentiate that from the professional opportunities that some people have and we think there is a place for professional sports and a place for collegiate athletics and we wanted to make sure that our changes keep that distinction between the two.”
There will be restrictions to maintain enforceable and balanced competition.
The three divisions have until the end of January to come up with their own rules.
The decision comes a month after California voted to allow college athletes to profit from endorsements.
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