Bill to benefit college student athletes gains committee approval

This bill sets guardrails and parameters, while providing great flexibility to the institution

FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) – Legislation that allows collegiate student athletes in Kentucky to profit from their name, image and likeness advanced in the General Assembly on Tuesday with unanimous approval from the House Education Committee.

Senate Bill 6 is sponsored by Sens. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville and Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville. 

“The legislature should not have to be dealing with this,” Wise told the panel.  “It should have been handled many years ago by the NCAA. The NCAA had many opportunities where they could have taken this on, made ruling to affect all college athletes, but they put their head in the sand.”

He said Congress should have acted upon this as well, but did not, leaving it up to the Supreme Court.

“We feel like we have a model piece of legislation here that has been vetted by all of our colleges and universities here in the commonwealth,” Wise said. “It has the support of our college athletes, the support of our universities.”

McGarvey added: “This bill sets guardrails and parameters, while providing great flexibility to the institution. Most importantly, I think, it specifically allows the universities to help the students with legal and financial advice.”

He noted there are some restrictions on how an athlete’s brand can profit.  “You cannot get involved in a name, image, and likeness that has to do with sports betting, controlled substances, a substance that the NCAA forbids, adult entertainment or products or services that would be illegal for the student athlete to be involved with at the time.”

McGarvey said the institutions get to set what the policies are.

Katie George, a former volleyball player for the University of Louisville, said due to the nearly full-time schedule of classes and her sport, “I had no opportunity to make a whole lot of money, because I didn’t have the time to get a full-time job, or a part-time job for that matter.”

She told the committee that she agreed to model for a pillow company for $3,000 without being identified as an athlete.  But when the NCAA found out, she had to give the $3,000 to a charity and was ineligible for the next semester.

“I am so glad that they have finally taken their heads out of the sand and realized that this was coming,” George said.  “You have to be able to evolve with the time.”

UofL women’s basketball coach Jeff Walz said, “We have a lot of wonderful student athletes, not only at the University of Louisville, but at every university in this state, who give back to the community. This bill will allow them to do more and more of that.”

The bill passes unanimously and now heads to the House floor, where if approved, would then go to the governor’s desk for his signature.

The committee also unanimously adopted House Concurrent Resolution 94, which calls on the federal government to ensure international collegiate athletes can taken advantage of state name, image and likeness laws.