TALLAHASSEE. Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis announced his support for the student athlete’s bill on Thursday.
- Governor Ron DeSantis supports Florida bills that would allow college athletes to make money
- California passed a similar bill last month
- NCAA prohibits student athletes from profiting on their name, image and likeness
Following California’s recent actions, DeSantis believes that having two powerhouses united on the issue could cause the NCAA to reevaluate.
Currently, the NCAA prohibits college athletes from making a profit on their name, image and likeness.
DeSantis noted that other college students are able to profit off of their image online but student athletes are unable to profit from social media with the NCAA’s current rules.
”I don’t know whether that would be LeBron James type money- probably not,” DeSantis said. But even just $10,000 could take a huge financial weight off low and middle income families.
Corey Simon, a former NFL player and star defensive tackle for FSU, joined DeSantis in supporting the bills.
“It’s important to every student athlete that’s walking the campus that doesn’t have time to do- to go work a 9-5 and still commit to their studies and commit to practice,” Simon said. “And so with social media now they’ve created a platform to be able to sit in their room and generate money.”
Rep. Kionne McGhee, the Democratic House minority leader shared how UCF lost their kicker because the NCAA forced him to quit the team or give up his YouTube channel. At FSU, a student athlete with 1.7 million followers on Instagram is unable to profit as a brand ambassador because of the current NCAA rules.
“At the end of the day it’s about fairness. Student athletes should not be treated worse than anybody else.” DeSantis said.