Name & Image Bill, Supreme Court Case, Could Change the Game for College Athletes
College athletes like Illinois basketball star Ayo Dosunmu could make money on their names and likenesses under a bill before Governor JB Pritzker. A U.S. Supreme Court decision Monday added to the likelihood of paying players.
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling Monday delivered a major blow to universities, and the NCAA, who have maintained college athletes are not allowed to earn income, especially using their name, image, and likeness.
Via the Associated Press:
The high court agreed with a group of former college athletes that NCAA limits on the education-related benefits that colleges can offer athletes who play Division I basketball and football are unenforceable.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the court that the NCAA sought “immunity from the normal operation of the antitrust laws,” which the court declined to grant.
Under current NCAA rules, students cannot be paid, and the scholarship money colleges can offer is capped at the cost of attending the school. The NCAA had defended its rules as necessary to preserve the amateur nature of college sports.
But the former athletes who brought the case, including former West Virginia football player Shawne Alston, argued that the NCAA’s rules on education-related compensation were unfair and violate federal antitrust law designed to promote competition. The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling barring the NCAA from enforcing those rules.
In the waning hours of the spring legislative session, lawmakers approved a bill sponsored by Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago), who was a football player at the University of Illinois, allowing players to cash in on their name, image, and likeness (NIL). Governor JB Pritzker is expected to sign the legislation in the coming weeks.
Though, Buckner admits, certain star players would be more in line for endorsement deals than lower level sport athletes.
“It would stand to reason that the Ayo’s [Donsumnu, the University of Illinois All-American basketball player], the Justin Fields’ [Bears rookie quarterback from Ohio State] of the world, will have a leg up, right? There will be more folks who want to throw dollars at them based on their name and image, and based on all that comes with who they have become as college athletic stars,” Buckner said. “But, I could name a handful of guys who I played with who weren’t necessarily the marquee players, but they had a campus following. People were attracted to their personalities, and these people could have made some money during their college years, whether it’s an endorsement with a local car dealership or the local pizza shop or the local sandwich shop.”
Buckner says it would also allow players in all sports, like tennis, golf, or swimming and diving, to offer paid lessons, camps, and appearances during the offseason, which they currently aren’t allowed to do.
Universities around the state are taking their time digesting the ruling and waiting for the state law to take effect.
“A lot to digest,” said University of Illinois athletic department spokesman Kent Brown.
Spokespeople for Northwestern University, Northern Illinois University, and DePaul University said they weren’t prepared to comment.
But whether it’s paying players a salary, endorsement deals, or even income from YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok accounts, Buckner believes the trend is on the side of athletes.
“I think that today’s decision laid the groundwork for that,” Buckner said. “They talked about the anti-trust nature of the NCAA’s business model looks like, it was more than a dog whistle, it was a bull horn.”
