The NCAA Board of Governors voted unanimously today to permit student-athletes the opportunity to financially benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness, which could lead to a paycheck for Tiger athletes.
LSU Senior Associate Athletic Director Robert Munson says a statement from LSU’s athletic department on the decision is forthcoming.
Each of the NCAA’s three divisions have been tasked to immediately consider updates to relevant bylaws and policies, says Michael V. Drake, chair of the board and president of Ohio State University, in a statement. Those changes—which are being described as a “modernization” of the rules—must be set by January 2021.
Here are some of the guidelines the NCAA has set for those updates:
• Assure student-athletes are treated similarly to non-athlete students unless a compelling reason exists to differentiate.
• Make clear the distinction between collegiate and professional opportunities.
• Make clear that compensation for athletics performance or participation is impermissible.
• Reaffirm that student-athletes are students first and not employees of the university.
The NCAA’s action comes on the heels of various efforts in states to pay student-athletes for their image and likeness for their use in products, like the formerly produced NCAA football games that were discontinued in 2013 by EA Sports amid complaints and lawsuits for using the images of student-athletes in the games without paying them.
Earlier this week, when discussing California’s legislation that would protect student-athletes who were paid, Electronic Arts’ chief executive, Andrew Wilson said EA “would jump for the opportunity” to resume development on a college football video game.
