With NCAA new policy on name, image, likeness, Senator working to tax student-athlete scholarships

Well, it sure didn’t take long for those involved in our government to pick a side on the NCAA’s new policy on student-athletes’ ability to profit off their name, image and likeness.

On Tuesday, the NCAA announced that it will permit student-athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness in the future, a decision that came quickly after California introduced and passed similar legislation for its college student-athletes. There are still several loose ends to tie up and there are plenty of questions about the NCAA’s new policy.

It sounds like the two sides may still be pretty far apart on this issue, though we’ll likely learn more in the coming days and weeks.

However, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) has not wasted any time in weighing in on the situation. And now that the NCAA has decided to make profiting off name, image and likeness permissible, the senator believes there should be some strings attached.

Burr would like student-athletes to pay income taxes on their scholarships, because that money “should be treated like income.” Below is the full statement he made on Twitter:

If college athletes are going to make money off their likenesses while in school, their scholarships should be treated like income. I’ll be introducing legislation that subjects scholarships given to athletes who choose to “cash in” to income taxes. https://t.co/H7jXC0dNls

— Richard Burr (@SenatorBurr) October 29, 2019

That’s not going to be a very popular opinion anywhere. Even if you aren’t on board with the name, image, and likeness situation, this seems a tad much.

But, it just shows how extreme both sides of the argument can be.

It will be interesting to see how much the NCAA’s policy and the California law align, and whether there will still be things to clear up in the future. There will probably be a lot more that surfaces from everything the NCAA announced today.