Legislation giving college athletes in Nebraska the chance to endorse brands or products, promote sponsored content on social media or get paid for private lessons or to host camps advanced from first-round debate Tuesday.
Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt's Nebraska Fair Pay to Play Act (LB962), which would allow athletes to make money on their name, image or likeness, won early-round approval on a 36-4 vote.
"I was surprised to learn that 100% of student-athletes in Nebraska, from the football quarterback at UNL to the women's golfer at Chadron State, are legally prevented from participating in the free market and earning any wages at all for their athletic skills or talents," Hunt said.
Modeled on a bill passed by California lawmakers last fall, Hunt's bill adds Nebraska to more than 20 other states considering allowing student-athletes to seek money-making opportunities while still participating in college sports.
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It also lets athletes sign with an agent who could connect them with endorsement deals, and protects them from retaliation by both their institution and the NCAA, the organization that sets rules for college athletics.
Hunt said her bill provides athletes "the same freedoms as their non-athlete peers," like musicians who get paid for a gig or computer science majors who work for local companies while still in school.
The measure earned support from Lincoln Sens. Adam Morfeld, Patty Pansing Brooks and Anna Wishart, who said it afforded new opportunities to college athletes, the overwhelming majority of whom won't join the professional ranks, without requiring the university to pay them a salary.
Supporters such as Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue said the bill ensures that student-athletes do not have "their rights trampled on by billion-dollar corporations like the NCAA."
Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, who has fought for decades to pass legislation requiring colleges and universities to pay student-athletes as employees, said the "multi-billion, high-octane entertainment business" of college sports profits off of the unpaid labor of athletes.
Hunt's bill, he said, would give those athletes, particularly from poor families, a chance to set themselves up for the future.
"This is a recruitment tool," he said. "If other schools allowed their athletes to do this, and UNL does not, then the players are not going to come here. They will go to school where they can receive some compensation for the misuse or use of their name."
Sen. Steve Lathrop said he thought Hunt's bill was a bad idea, but for the reason outlined by Chambers, said he would support it.
Likening the legislation to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that opened up spending on elections, Lathrop said donors will soon come to control the recruiting process under the Fair Pay to Play Act.
The Omaha senator added he would vote for Hunt's bill to keep Nebraska's colleges and universities competitive with other states until the federal government intervened.
Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte echoed Lathrop, raising concerns that coaches recruiting high school athletes to play in college might be replaced by donors or business leaders.
"Coach (Scott) Frost won't be sitting across from a student-athlete," he said of the Husker football coach. "An advertiser will be sitting across from them offering them $150,000. Then Alabama will come in with $200,000. It will be a bidding war."
While Lathrop voted in support, Groene cast a vote against advancing the bill.
Other opponents, such as Sen. Bruce Bostelman of Brainard, said Hunt's bill would allow college athletes to earn money in excess of what their non-athlete peers who work on behalf of the university in research labs or teaching can earn.
And Sen. Julie Slama of Peru said it widened the divide between "the haves and the have-nots" — athletes at smaller colleges and universities such as Peru State College in her Southeast Nebraska legislative district who wouldn't have the opportunity to earn as much as athletes at big-time programs.
Slama, who voted to advance the bill, also added it did not limit what kinds of endorsement deals a college athlete could pursue. Athletes could seek to be paid to spread messages on behalf of Planned Parenthood or the National Rifle Association, Slama said, or get sponsorships from bars or strip clubs.
"The opportunities are endless if you are an university athlete who has built up your image," she said. "You can use that image however you choose representing whatever political cause, representing whatever entrepreneurial effort who is willing to pay."
The proposal will need to pass two more rounds of debate and be signed by Gov. Pete Ricketts before it goes into law.