California bill calls for colleges to pay some athletes $25,000 a year

A California lawmaker introduced a bill Thursday that would require schools that play major college sports to pay some athletes as much as $25,000 annually, along with

covering the cost of six-year guaranteed athletic scholarships and post-college medical expenses. The College Athlete Protection Act is sponsored by Assemblymember Chris

Holden, (D-Pasadena) who is a former San Diego State basketball player, and is the type of state-level legislation that the NCAA is looking to federal lawmakers to

preempt. California was the first state to pass a law giving college athletes the right to be compensated for use of their name, image and likeness back in 2019. That

triggered similar action by state legislatures around the country. The NCAA lifted its ban on athletes cashing in on their fame with sponsorship and endorsement deals, but

more than two dozen state-level NIL laws have made it impossible for the association to create detailed and uniform rules of its own. Just last week at the NCAA convention,

college sports leaders reiterated the need for Congress' help in regulating NIL compensation and protecting the association from state laws that undercut its ability to govern

college sports. “We need to solidify that as it relates to college sports, federal law preempts state law,” Baylor President Linda Livingstone, the chairwoman of the NCAA's

Board of Governors, said last week. “In areas such as NIL, we already see that state legislators will take action that they believe will give the universities in their states a

competitive edge over their neighbors.”