On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a controversial law that promises to allow collegiate athletes to sign endorsement deals and profit from their likeness.
The law has the potential to drastically change college sports.
San Diego State University football coach Rocky Long didn't have much to say at the team's weekly news conference on Tuesday.
“It doesn't happen until 2023 so I'm not thinking about it,” he said. “Because it will change dramatically between now and then.”
Two of his players, however, said they liked the idea of making extra money on top of their NCAA cost-of-living stipend.
“We're here four or five years and it's a lot of our life,” said senior tight end Parker Houston. “So it's hard for a lot of us because we don't have the opportunity to get a job so we can't really start earning our savings and building it up. so I think it's maybe something that will definitely benefit student-athletes.”
Senior cornerback Luq Barcoo said schools such as SDSU make a lot of money from student-athletes, so it only makes sense for some of it to come back to the players.
“So I don't understand why it's not okay for us to receive some of that money,” he said.
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But the NCAA, which regulates collegiate athletics, has issues with the law. If the current rules remain, The NCAA might bar California schools from competing when the law goes into effect in 2023.
SDSU professor Bernhard Schroeder, who is a brand and marketing expert, said if the law goes into effect as is, it will be chaos for collegiate sports.
“What does it mean for college athletes and I think it's the Wild, Wild West,” he said.
But Schroeder thinks a lot will change between now and 2023.
“Now the NCAA has to negotiate,” he said. “There's a deadline there's a law that's been passed now it's game on for negotiation.”
NCAA officials agree that changes are needed. However, they say the changes must happen at the national level, not state by state.
Schroeder, who has more than 20 years of marketing experience with Fortune 100 companies, said business would have to sign endorsement deals with college athletes.
“At the end of the day — and I don't mean to say this in a negative way — they don’t care about the athletes,” he said. “They care about moving product.”
He added that businesses see students as attractive customers but most college players, however, would probably never see an endorsement.
“You're going to see the star athletes kind of get the deals and everyone else isn't,” he said. “They might be appearing at events they might be signing autographs, they might be on billboards they might be on radio, they might be involved in some regional promotion.”
