Commonwealth Policy Center

The NCAA has a strict rule for college ballplayers that prohibits them from getting paid from outside interests. The NCAA argues that they’re keeping college sports from becoming professionalized. But critics say that NCAA athletics is a multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry and profiting off of the talents of young kids without compensating them. Now the state of California is pushing back. They’ve enacted a law that allows college ballplayers to sign endorsement deals and this is shaking up college athletics. Why shouldn’t college athletes benefit financially while the universities profit off of their talents? This is good news to many of the college athletes who come from humble financial situations. By the way, who would have thought that free-market reforms in college athletics would come from California? The law will go into effect in 2023.