California’s Athlete-Compensation Law Is Now Official, Posing a Serious Challenge to the NCAA – The Chronicle of Higher Education
California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, made the state’s challenge to amateurism in collegiate sports a reality on Monday, signing into law a bill that allows athletes at California universities to earn money from their name, image, and likeness rights starting in 2023.
“This is the beginning of a national movement — one that transcends geographic and partisan lines,” Newsom said in a news release. “Colleges reap billions from these student-athletes’ sacrifices and success but, in the same breath, block them from earning a single dollar. That’s a bankrupt model.”
Newsom signed the bill on the HBO show of one of its most vocal proponents: the professional basketball player LeBron James. Also present for the episode of The Shop were the former UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi, the WNBA player Diana Taurasi, and the former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon.
During the show, James praised the bill, saying that one reason he skipped playing college basketball was to make money sooner to help his mom. “This is a game-changer for student-athletes and for equity in sports,” James said on the show. “Athletes at every level deserve to be empowered and to be fairly compensated for their work, especially in a system where so many are profiting off of their talents.”