BEAUMONT, Texas — The NCAA could be one step closer to compensating athletes for their name, image and likeness. But that does not mean video games featuring NCAA teams are coming back anytime soon.
The board of governors is supporting a rule change that would let athletes get paid. Allowing them to make money from third-party companies for product endorsement, public appearances and social media content without interfering with the NCAA. Athletes would also be able to identify themselves by their school and sport.
However, athletes will no be allowed to use school or conference logos and trademarks. This makes it impossible for NCAA video game franchise to return in their previous form.
If the rule change is accepted it would go into effect at the start of the 2021-2022 academic year.
Lamar Director of Athletics Marco gave his thoughts. "Overall I think it will be beneficial to our student-athletes. It will be beneficial to the ones that can take advantage of it. I thought about this earlier when you guys reached out. You know we haven't had an example here at Lamar, but when I was at Louisiana Tech we had a couple of football players that came up with their own clothing line and they weren't able to promote their product at that time. They had to wait until they were done playing and they started their clothing line as a freshman. Now they would be able to use that name and their likeness to promote their product.
There are concerns on how the new rules would affect recruiting.
"I do worry about the recruiting piece and what that would do to us. It's hard to tell how that will work out, but that's my biggest concern, is the recruiting aspect in that sense."