Colorado One Step From Permitting College Athletes to Profit From Their NILs
By Ken Reed
Colorado’s House of Representatives voted 55-9 this week to allow college athletes the right to earn income from their names, images, and likenesses (NILs). The bill was unanimously approved by the Colorado Senate last month. Governor Jared Polis is expected to sign the bill into law soon.
“This bill sends a message to colleges across the country: student athletes have the right to share in the wealth that their presences bring into institutions of higher education,” said Rep. Leslie Herod, D-Denver, one of the bill’s sponsors. “Student athletes should be able to profit off the brand they work so hard to create and cultivate.”
Herod said the Colorado law doesn’t allow colleges to pay athletes directly, but would allow athletes to make money from “social media, a local pizza shop and things like that.”
The Colorado bill follows a similar law passed last year in California. Bills similar to California’s and Colorado’s are pending in 20+ states, including Florida, Illinois and New York.
In response to the pressure applied by these states, the NCAA said it will work on rules that allow athletes to profit from their NILs. Given the organization’s pushback on this issue for decades, we’ll see if anything significant — and fair to college athletes — comes out of their discussions on this issue.
Don’t hold your breath folks.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
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"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- League of Fans Sports Policy Director Ken Reed quoted in Washington Post column titled "What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement," by Jay Mathews
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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