ORLANDO, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday that college athletes can make money from their sports fame in Florida starting next year.
DeSantis said the bill allows college athletes to be financially compensated for their name, image or likeness.
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He said the monetization of an athlete’s likeness would face rules and regulations.
“This is my career. This is my life. This is my passion,” said Donald Da La Haye, a former UCF kicker.
Da La Haye was ruled ineligible by the NCAA and kicked off the team for his YouTube page.
“The bill does not do anything about paying an athlete from a university. They are still amateurs, but if EA Sports wants to do NCAA wants to do NCAA football. Have some of these guys who are great players and they are going to use their name, image and likeness then there can be some compensation for that,” DeSantis said.
Former University of Miami football player Jonathan Vilma said players used to watch as other people would profit off them.
“We were fortunate that we started and received scholarships, but at the same time we understood the economics of what we did and how much we produced financially,” Vilma said.
The law will go into effect in July 2021, DeSantis said.
Watch the announcement below:
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