Groundbreaking news came out of the NCAA on Wednesday, as the Board of Governors were in support of a rule change that would allow college student-athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness. It would force the association to reconstruct the amateurism model it’s been enforcing for decades.

While there has been some mixed reaction to the NCAA Board of Governors’ support, Illinois Athletic Director Josh Whitman says he’s encouraged by the movement on the name, image and likeness front. He issued a statement on Wednesady.

“I am encouraged by today’s announcement, which will form the framework for legislation that would formally create a new name-image-likeness paradigm starting with the 2021-22 academic year,” Whitman said in a statement. “I appreciate the NCAA and its working group, co-chaired by my B1G colleague Gene Smith, for their leadership, diligence, and creativity in developing such a progressive slate of concepts to provide increased opportunities for our student-athletes to benefit from use of their NIL. As I have state previously, these are complicated questions, and I applaud the working group for tackling many of them directly. A number of questions still require consideration, and I look forward to being an active participant in the next steps toward a January approval.”

The NCAA is expected to vote on the subject in January 2021, with implementation and changes coming as early as the 2021-22 academic year.

Per the NCAA, “student-athletes would be permitted to identify themselves by sport and school, the use of conference and school logos, trademarks or other involvement would not be allowed.”

Recommendations from the board were scheduled to be discussed with NCAA President Mark Emmert on Wednesday morning.