Florida To Become First State To Allow Student Athlete Compensation

• College athletes in Florida can now receive endorsement deals and be paid accordingly beginning in 2021 after Governor Ron DeSantis signed FL SB 646.
• California and Colorado have also created similar laws but theirs will not take effect until 2023 making Florida the first state to offer this opportunity to student-athletes.
• The odds are favorable the many student athletes will venture to Florida-based universities in order to collect on this benefit.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Beginning in July 2021, college athletes in Florida will be paid for the use of their name, image, or likeness (NIL) after Senate Bill 646 was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday.

In September, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Fair Pay to Play Act into law allowing for the same thing that DeSantis has now done for student-athletes in Florida.

Players in the Sunshine State will be able to receive individual endorsements and other compensations whenever anything pertaining to the individual’s NIL is used for profiting purposes.

What Does The New Law Entail?

California was the first state to touch on and move forward with legislation to compensate their collegiate athletes with their Fair Pay To Play Act that made headlines nationwide.

Following in their footsteps was Colorado, with other states across the U.S. in various phases of trying to get their student-athletes the ability to receive payments through different platforms.

The domino effect of states now pulling for this legislation is in part due to colleges feeling that California (the first state to do this) would have had an unfair advantage with their sports programs as students would flock to those schools based on being allowed to accept endorsements among other forms of monetary compensation.

While California and Colorado both created their laws before Florida, theirs will not become effective until January 2023.

Florida’s new law will have the jump on these two states with their law being implemented in July 2021.

Senate Bill 646 not only allows college athletes in Florida to be paid for their NIL, it also stops any school from preventing their players to receive compensation.

“Governor Ron DeSantis was an early supporter of this law,” said Rep. Chip LaMarca. “Florida will now afford our state’s 11,000 collegiate athletes the ability to earn a living, the same as their fellow students. For far too long, the collegiate athletic system professionalized everyone associated with athletics except for the young women and men who put in all the hard work. Today, we changed that. I cannot thank the countless students, parents, professional athletes, coaches, and directors enough for helping to get this bill over the goal line. Thank you to Governor DeSantis for standing with Florida’s collegiate athletes.”

The Future For Florida College Athletes

The details of the law need to be worked out by the Board of Governors with the NCAA.

Stipulations within Senate Bill 646 will prohibit athletes from signing endorsements or contracts that will conflict with their school rules or endorsements that their schools already have in place.

It also states that no college or university can pay their students themselves because that is not what FL SB 646 is about. All payments must be from outsider deals with other companies and platforms wishing to use the NIL of any college player in Florida’s athletic world.

The new law will take effect in 2021, a year and a half before any other state in the nation, which makes collegiate players in the Sunshine State the first to be offered this opportunity.

If engaging in legal college sports betting, one would be wise to pay attention to the Florida schools, as their recruitment efforts will likely come much easier in the near future.

News tags: California | Colorado | Fair Pay to Play Act | FL SB 646 | Florida | NCAA | Ron DeSantis