California's NIL Push Faces Setbacks
12/6/2024 | 2mVideo has Closed Captions
Efforts to advance student-athlete NIL rights in California face setbacks despite past progress.
California led the way in allowing student-athletes to profit from name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals, but new efforts to expand those rights have faltered. While other states move forward, California's proposed legislation to increase transparency and address gender equity in NIL compensation was vetoed. Meanwhile, debates continue over whether athletes should be treated as employees.
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SoCal Matters is a local public television program presented by PBS SoCal
California's NIL Push Faces Setbacks
12/6/2024 | 2mVideo has Closed Captions
California led the way in allowing student-athletes to profit from name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals, but new efforts to expand those rights have faltered. While other states move forward, California's proposed legislation to increase transparency and address gender equity in NIL compensation was vetoed. Meanwhile, debates continue over whether athletes should be treated as employees.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipIn 2019, California became the first state in the country that would allow student-athletes to cash in on the big business of college sports.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 206, a landmark bill that allows athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness, also known as NIL.
For the first time, students could make brand deals and earn thousands of dollars from companies such as Gatorade or Bodyarmor.
Other states soon followed California's lead, and the NCAA, which governs college sports, changed its rules.
This year, student-athletes in the US could earn around $1.7 billion, according to one estimate by Opendorse, a tech platform for name, image, and likeness deals.
However, after leading the way nationally, efforts by California lawmakers to advance the rights of student-athletes have stalled.
California recently failed to pass legislation that would have set new national precedents.
SB 906 will bring transparency to NIL and reveal whether women athletes are being shortchanged and to what extent.
One bill, which would have imposed new requirements around name, image, and likeness deals, was vetoed by Governor Newsom in September.
He said that further changes to this dynamic should be done nationally.
Meanwhile, other changes are afoot.
For example, the National Labor Relations Board is considering arguments that student-athletes at the University of Southern California should be school employees and entitled to compensation and the right to unionize.
This year, two of the biggest leaders in California college sports, UCLA and USC, moved into a different athletic conference.
No lawmaker appears poised to take up the issue in the near future, and the state leaders behind those failed bills, Senator Nancy Skinner, Senator Stephen Bradford, and Assemblymember Chris Holden, are all reaching their term limits this year.
For CalMatters, I'm Adam Echelman.
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SoCal Matters is a local public television program presented by PBS SoCal