Colorado could soon join California in allowing college athletes to profit off their names and likenesses.
Republican state Sen. Owen Hill said he and Democratic state Sen. Jeff Bridges are “all in” on introducing a bill next year. So, too, is Alec Garnett, the House majority leader.
“We’ve got a star cast of folks who want to get this thing done,” said Hill, of Colorado Springs.
The bill, the lawmakers said, would allow student athletes to accept endorsement deals and sign with agents. A similar bill was signed into law Monday by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who told The New York Times that his state’s measure is “a big move to expose the farce (of college athletics) and to challenge a system that is outsized in its capacity to push back.”
The changes would violate current rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The potential Colorado bill, Hill said, would give athletes the right to sue if the NCAA — the governing body of a billion-dollar industry that forbids athletes from receiving compensation beyond room, board and education — were to push back. That these athletes are presently forbidden from profiting off their own achievements, Hill said, is “garbage, trash.”
Hill lamented that California beat Colorado to the punch and said he and Bridges had originally hoped to introduce their bill last year. In fact, in April, about a month before the 2019 session’s end, the pair told The Denver Post the legislation was coming in a matter of days.
But the bill, as Garnett tells it now, never saw daylight because it got washed out by a variety of unrelated legislative dramas that played out over the session’s final few weeks.
Hill said he’s confident that won’t happen again in 2020.
“We did not get it introduced last year. This bill will be introduced this time,” he said, adding, “it’s to our shame in Colorado that California beat us on something.”
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg of Boulder said he welcomes having the conversation in the state Capitol next year and acknowledged that California, by going first on the issue, has made it easier for Colorado to potentially enact similar legislation. California’s law goes into effect in 2023.
“That’s how this stuff works sometimes: One state breaks the seal and others follow pretty quickly,” Fenberg said. “And California often is the state that breaks the seal.”
The NCAA says California’s law is “creating confusion” and that “NCAA member schools already are working on changing rules for all student athletes to appropriately use their name, image and likeness in accordance with our values — but not pay them to play.”
California’s law met with opposition from leaders of the University of California and California State University systems. The Pac-12 Conference also opposed it. Garnett said he expects similar institutional opposition here, but that he and other lawmakers are resolved to pass a bill in 2020.
“On this issue, you always need to make sure your door’s open to discuss with the universities here in Colorado,” he said, “so we’re going to be open to talking to (University of Colorado Boulder athletic director) Rick George, to CSU, to Metro State and the others, but this is an issue that I think the people of Colorado are behind.”
George serves on an 18-member NCAA committee exploring possible changes to allow athletes to profit off their names, images and likenesses. He declined to comment Tuesday afternoon.
“We are closely monitoring the conversations across the country and in Colorado. However, we do not typically comment on pending legislation and do not have anything to add at this time,” said Kyle Neaves, CSU associate athletic director for communications.
Garnett added: “The NCAA is behind the times in recognizing where the public’s at, where these athletes are at and where these institutions should be at.”
The Denver Post’s Sean Keeler contributed to this report.
