The state of Michigan is looking to take point on the issue of letting college athletes profit off their likeness as state representatives Brandt Iden and former Spartan football standout Joe Tate introduced bills that would allow collegiate athletes to start profiting off their likeness as soon as July 2020.
The bills were modeled after the California bill that was signed into law back in late September. The key difference between the two bills is that if Representative Iden and Tate’s bill pass, it could go into effect almost two and half years sooner than the bill that California passed.
In response to the bills California and other states like Florida had passed, the NCAA unanimously moved to start the process of allowing its athletes to profit off of their likeness, as long as it stayed consistent with the amateurism model of college athletics. The NCAA plans on making this an option for student athletes no later than January 2021.
The two representatives that introduced this bill reached across the aisle to try and allow student athletes to profit of their likeness. While in college, Republican Brandt Iden played collegiate tennis for Kalamazoo college and Democrat representative Joe Tate was a starting guard for the MSU football team in the late 1990’s, and even spent some time on practice squads in the NFL prior to running for office.
As these bills continue to be discussed and passed in state governments, it is being come increasingly clear that college athletics is about to experience a major change in a very short amount of time.
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