Colorado governor opens pathway to college athlete compensation

It has always been against NCAA rules for student athletes to profit off of their abilities while in school but Colorado is seeking to change this and it will be interesting to see how this pans out.

This could be viewed as a good or a bad thing. For one thing, there is no denying that the ability to make money off one particular state's colleges and not another's, would certainly influence a student's decision on which school to sign with and would severely damage the ability of certain colleges to recruit if their states do not currently allow this sort of thing.

Don't get the wrong idea; this does not allow colleges to compensate student athletes but it is certainly conceivable that booster programs could make under-the-table "advertising promises" to prospective athletes. It is easy enough to say that the college can not be directly involved in this compensation, but it is easy to conceive that certain universities with big money football and basketball programs would easily work around this.

The NCAA is surprisingly not opposed to this notion, yet. However, they are appealing to federal legislators to invoke either a nationwide ban, or nationwide approval. I am not certain if the NCAA would be capable of revoking this law that is set to be passed in Colorado... but it doesn't seem as though they have the authority to override state governments.

Already 20 other states have similar legislature "in the pipe" as it is quite evident that this is going to give a very real advantage to schools in Colorado. Nebraska has basically already passed the same thing, but can not make it official until it is "safe and necessary to call members back."

How do you feel about this? I feel as though college athletes were likely already being compensated but in a much more hidden way. At least this will put it out in the open. I would be willing to bet that there will be some sort of outcry in the future about how women athletes are not being compensated in a comparable way. Buckle up for that inevitability.