Georgia State Rep. Billy Mitchell announced today that he will introduce legislation when the house reconvenes in January 2020. If passed, it would allow collegiate athletes in the state to profit off their names and likenesses.
“With this legislation, Georgia hereby joins a rapidly growing number of states that have filed similar legislation, or are in the process of doing so, including Florida, New York, South Carolina and Minnesota,” Mitchell said in a blog post today. “Not only is this an idea whose time has come, but Georgia schools would be at a decisive disadvantage when it comes to recruiting with other states that join California in implementing this act, if we fail to do the same.”
In addition, Mitchell’s legislation would allow athletes to hire agents to help secure sponsorship and business deals.
Under the current system, there are extensive regulations impacting student-agent relations.
In response to a Tweet that claimed the legislation would “never pass,” Mitchell said, “Don’t know where you developed your reason about the chances of this passing, however I can assure you that you will be surprised with the amount of support this already has.”
The Signal published an article on this topic on Oct. 10, which gave collegiate athletes, both current and former, the chance to share their perspectives.
