One year from July, college athletes will be able to get paid for their name, image, and likeness. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made that announcement early Friday afternoon while at a press conference at the University of Miami.
Some more info on the bill via ESPN:
The NCAA's board of governors said in April that it supported a proposal to allow athletes to accept endorsement money with some restrictions or "guardrails" designed to maintain a clear distinction between college sports and professional leagues.
The proposal, however, does not provide specifics on how the NCAA would solve many of the most vexing problems with establishing those guardrails and deciding who should enforce them. College sports leaders are planning to iron out those details by the end of October and vote on the proposed changes at their annual meeting in January. There is no guarantee that the proposal will become an NCAA rule.
Florida's law includes some restrictions, such as saying that payments to athletes must be "commensurate with market value" in order to "preserve the integrity, quality, character, and amateur nature of intercollegiate athletics and to maintain a clear separation between amateur intercollegiate athletics and professional sports." The law also states explicitly that colleges and universities are not allowed to pay athletes directly.
Even Adam Schefter thinks this is a positive.