Should college athletes be paid a stipend? New SC bill could give them up to $25,000
Despite rule changes allowing college athletes to get paid through endorsement deals, South Carolina lawmakers will explore a bill next year that would provide another revenue stream for Palmetto State players.
State Sen. Marlon Kimpson, D-Charleston, prefiled a bill last week, that would not only allow student athletes in good academic standing to profit off of the use of their names, images or likenesses, but would require universities to pay students a stipend.
Colleges would be required under the bill to create a student athlete trust fund and deposit a percentage of the university’s sports revenue. The college would then have to deposit $5,000 in the fund on the athlete’s behalf for each year the student receives good grades, according to the bill. Student athletes would be able to receive up to $25,000 each, which would be delivered in a one-time payment.
Kimpson and S.C. Sen. Mia McLeod, D-Richland, introduced a similar bill last session, which never made it out of committee. Bills filed in previous years, including one filed in 2015, have failed to gain traction.
Several states considered legislation that would allow student athletes to profit in the last year. California passed a law in 2019 allowing athletes to make money from endorsement deals, though the bill does not go into effect until 2023. Some other states have followed California’s suit, while dozens of states are still debating the initiative.
Though the NCAA, which governs college athletics, initially opposed the proposal, the organization’s board announced in April that it supported allowing players to get money from endorsements. The new rules were expected to go into effect during the 2021-22 academic year. The board, however, still opposed direct pay from colleges to student athletes.
After the NCAA’s decision, University of South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner and Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey released statements in support of the move to allow endorsement deals. In 2019, Clemson University head football coach Dabo Swinney said he would “go do something else” if college players were paid a stipend or salary.
A study released by the National Bureau of Economic Research in September found that if student athletes in prestigious conferences received 50% of gross revenue from athletics like their professional counterparts in the NFL and NBA do, and they split that money evenly, each football player could receive about $360,000 per year and each basketball player could get about $500,000 annually.
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Should college athletes be paid a stipend? New SC bill could give them up to $25,000."
