California student-athletes one step closer to getting paid, despite NCAA threat

A California bill proposing to allow college athletes to earn compensation off of their name, image and likeness moved one step closer to passage Tuesday afternoon, when the State Assembly Higher Education Committee passed it with support from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

Senate Bill 206, the “Fair Pay to Play Act,” passed 11-0 with one abstention and will now advance to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, where it will likely be heard in August after California lawmakers return from their summer recess.

“I ask you to imagine if any other billion dollar industry relied on college students as their primary source of talent for the revenue of their industry yet denied those students compensation,” State Sen. Nancy Skinner, the bill’s author, said at Tuesday’s hearing.

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