Tennessee Sports: We’re one step closer to paying college athletes

California lawmakers have passed a bill to allow college athletes to get paid. It’s the first official step to getting all college athletes paid.

It’s been rumored for awhile now that California would pass a bill that would allow their college athletes to get paid and it’s officially happening (maybe).

It hasn’t officially been passed, but it’s expected to so I’m going to assume that it will be passed by the end of the week since that’s the deadline for the deal. For the first time ever, a state is going against the NCAA, and it could be the tip of the iceberg.

Now no California schools will be able to participate in championship games, but it may be worth the sacrifice if they win the battle. But if they lose it could be a big loss for universities like Cal, USC, UCLA, and Stanford.

Luckily for them, I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think this is going to change a lot when it comes to college athletics. I expect this to be a successful test run, and this will open the NCAA’s eyes to finding a way to pay college athletes across the country.

At least with the major schools, I think we all know that some of the better college athletes, especially football players, are getting paid under the table so they might as well get officially paid since the school is spending money on them anyways.

Now the thing to watch for over the next few years is if it’s successful, and if so, how successful? What states will move forward with this after California? Will it be a state-to-state decision, or will the NCAA ultimately cave in?

If the NCAA doesn’t give in, there could end up being a lot of powerhouses, and great universities leave the NCAA and start their own league.

Now I know that’s a little far fetched when it comes down to that, but if multiple states go to this and the NCAA doesn’t want to pay their players then after so many states go to this, then there could be some changes coming to the college football system.

For now, it will be interesting to see how this goes in California. If it doesn’t work, well, you can forget the NCAA playing their players at least for a while.

While we’re here let’s do an exercise. Say the test run in California is successful, how long does it take for Tennessee to pass a similar bill? Would Alabama, Texas, or Louisiana pass a bill in the next 5-10 years?

I personally don’t think any of those states would. Although if those four states went through with it, then I think a lot of states would follow.

This will be a fun little experiment at California’s expense so we will learn if it works or not, and it won’t immediately affect the people outside of California for the most part.