NCAA Says Athletes Can Get Paid For Their Name, Image and Likeness

Sports

By Teddy Grant Published: June 30, 2021

NCAA Says Athletes Can Get Paid For Their Name, Image and Likeness

FILE - In this March 11, 2020, file photo, Arkansas guard Jimmy Whitt Jr. plays against Vanderbilt in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Nashville, Tenn. As thousands of college athletes and coaches across the country try to adjust after the sudden suspensions of entire seasons of competition and perhaps more so the camaraderie of daily practices, training sessions and team meals, communication specialists and mental health professionals are encouraging those involved to allow these young men and women to go through the stages of grieving as needed. At Arkansas, the athletic department is keeping tabs on every student-athlete at all times through a detailed spreadsheet, when someone is on the move, they all know. So, when men's basketball player Jimmy Whitt returns home to Columbia, Missouri, in the coming days, his coaches will monitor his movements by checking in until he reports he has safely made it. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

Update 6/30/2021:

The NCAA said Wednesday that it would allow college athletes to make money from their likeness, the Associated Press reported. The decision comes right before several states would allow for the athletes to get paid.

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Student-athletes should be allowed to earn money from personal appearances, autograph signings, endorsements and more, an NCAA committee said Monday.

The decision comes following calls that college athletes should be compensated for their likeness outside receiving scholarships and stipends toward the cost-of-living expenses, according to The New York Times.

Last week, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against the NCAA, saying that student-athletes could get education-related payments.

“Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurrent opinion. “And under ordinary principles of antitrust law, it is not evident why college sports should be any different. The NCAA is not above the law.”

The NCAA’s board is expected to vote on Wednesday on whether to approve the measure.