NCAA Threatens To Ban California Teams From Postseason Play Amid New Legislation On Compensation

The seemingly never-ending debate as to whether or not student athletes deserve financial compensation rumbles onto more dangerous territory this week, as California legislature just recently pushed things to a point jeopardizing NCAA postseason play for schools that reside within the Golden State. This includes established universities with historic athletic programs such as USC, Stanford, UCLA and others.

This week, California’s Senate heavily favored a revolutionary bill granting students the ability to profit off their name and image with a 31–4 vote. This essentially opposes the widely–used NCAA concept where all student–generated revenue goes straight towards the school that the student attends, rather than the students’ pockets. Merchandise and endorsements include multiple other miscellaneous scenarios where universities often use their students as a free tool to generate vast funds. According to Business Insider, other colleges with popular sports programs such as Texas A&M rake in $192.6 million dollars annually, which the students never see a single cent of due to this rule.

As California looks to strike down this professed unfair law by their Senate, the NCAA for now continues to abide by their own regulations, still neglecting to compensate their students. Adding to this, the NCAA possesses the capability to ban all schools, such as the those operating in California under the proposed new law, from all postseason play. This would include both interconference tournaments, as well as national events such as “March Madness” or the College Football Playoff.

Looking to avoid a potential disaster scenario that keeps all California schools from enjoying postseason activities, NCAA President Mark Emmert continues to urge California legislatures to think twice before pushing the bill into a law. Emmert commented on California’s potential law as he stated, “Passage of the bill now will create confusion among prospective and current student-athletes and our membership. The impact of a prematurely passed bill would be difficult to untangle.”

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Although the NCAA reportedly intends to eventually address the issue themselves at a later time, California’s early attempt to solve this constantly debated issue themselves complicates things substantially. Now both California and the NCAA appear gearing up for a “tug of  war” during the ongoing months, which unfortunately poises to take student athletes themselves along for the bumpy ride.

Article by Collin Helwig