Local athletes react to NCAA name, image and likeness financial changes
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Governor Andy Beshear signed an executive order on Thursday allowing student athletes in Kentucky to receive compensation for the use of their name, image and likeness.
Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the NCAA in a significant case that challenged the association’s ability to have national limits on benefits for athletes.
Nineteen states have passed legislation to allow such compensation for student-athletes that will take effect on July 1.
Kentucky just joined them.
Beshear is the first governor to allow compensation for name, image and likeness by executive order.
Leadership in the Kentucky General Assembly voiced support for the executive action, noting their intent to deal with the topic in the 2022 regular session.
One former WKU soccer player, Hannah Cady, says this could be a problem if other states don’t jump on board quickly.
“If anything, it would create more of a rush toward the schools that are letting students have that namesake and it would give them, you could say, better athletes, better players at the time and other schools might lose them due to those factors,” Cady said.
Cady is not sure where she stands on the idea of players making money on their namesakes but says there are positives and negatives of both sides.
She says when in college, she was not allowed to take discounts, gifts or even sell university clothing to a local thrift store.
Another former athlete, Michelle Duvall, played volleyball in college in Ohio and is now an assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Butler County.
Duvall says she could not have any kind of job in college because of the hours she put in for the sport and rules in place.
“It would have been an improvement. I mean, it, I don’t, I can’t speak for everybody, but my family wasn’t wealthy, and it was still very difficult to send me to college even though I did have a full scholarship, which is crazy. So, I think that if that were an opportunity back when I was playing, that would have improved things for me and probably for my family, I would say,”
Duvall also says she is not sure exactly how to feel about the change but sees some benefit for students receiving the financial compensation.
Kentucky colleges and universities have been directed to provide education and other resources to assist students with time, social media and brand management along with financial literacy.
Colleges and universities will retain the flexibility to reasonably limit the time, dates and associations from which the student-athlete may earn compensation.
