Until now, no Georgia State student-athlete has spoken on record about this topic. The Signal spoke with four athletes, current and former, who shared their opinions on the controversial topic.

Penny Hart, a former Georgia State wide receiver, graduated in 2019 and was signed to the Indianapolis Colts before a pre-season injury. During his time at Georgia State, Hart felt as though he and his teammates were under a constant spotlight.

“There’s nothing amateur about the schedule that we have, the discipline that we have to have or the constant talks about how we are more than just regular students,” Hart said.

Hart believes that student-athletes should be able to profit from their names and likenesses.

“I honestly think that [student-athletes] should have the opportunity to see some of [the] money that comes in — especially with how much the NCAA makes off all these different players,” he said.

Hart isn’t the only Georgia State athlete who feels this way. Two current student-athletes, who wish to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, shared their perspectives.

“If you want to be a brand ambassador for [a company], you can’t profit off of that. You can’t accept any free things that regular students wouldn’t get offered,” the second anonymous athlete said. “So, let’s say there’s pizza that is for athletes only. You are not allowed to take that, or you could be kicked off [your team].”

The NCAA enforces these rules and regulations through compliance officers at each participating school.

“Every team has to go through compliance meetings where [officers] talk about what they call ‘carwash.’ [Officers] tell you what you can and can’t do and what you should stay away from,” the second anonymous athlete said.

According to this athlete, compliance officers regulate everything from sexual misconduct to a player’s personal social media accounts. 

For any student-athlete who fails to comply with the handbook’s regulations, they may face disciplinary action from the Department of Athletics, law enforcement or the Dean of Students. Student-athletes could also face a reduction in athletics aid or ejection from their teams, according to the handbook.

Disqualifying infractions don’t necessarily have to be criminal incidents, like felonies or sexual misconduct.

The student-athletes who anonymously shared their experiences directly violated the handbook’s rules by speaking with The Signal.

The regulations state, “Media requests and interviews should always be arranged through the Sports Communications office. Please refer any media who contact you directly to the Sports Communications office.”

Simply for talking to The Signal without proper authorization, the anonymous student-athletes could be removed from their teams and lose their scholarships.

The California law makes it illegal for the NCAA to punish student-athletes for accepting compensation for athletic ability, name and likeness. 

“The bill [prohibits] the revocation of a student’s scholarship as a result of earning compensation or obtaining legal representation as authorized under these provisions,” it states. 

“With Senate Bill 206, a student-athlete like Katelyn Ohashi will no longer be the only person on the planet denied the right to monetize 60 million YouTube followers,”she said in the release.

However, the NCAA argued in a press statement that some member schools are already working on allowing all student-athletes to use their name, image and likeness — but not pay them to play. 

“The NCAA has consistently stood by its belief that student-athletes are students first, and they should not be employees of the university,” the statement reads. 

But New York state Senator Kevin Parker disagrees. Parker recently introduced a bill that would allow athletes in New York to profit from their names and likenesses, as well as receive direct income from their universities. 

“This legislation is not saying that college student-athletes should be millionaires but allows them to profit alongside their colleges and universities off their names and images,” the New York bill states.

Malik Benlevi, a former Georgia State men’s basketball player who helped bring the team to the NCAA tournament twice, agrees that it’s not about making millions. 

Penny Hart shared the same sentiment.

“A lot of people need the money for their families,” Hart said. “There are a lot of people that have children, a lot of people that pay bills back at home, a lot of people that come from single-parent households and, whatever the case may be, people still need that financial stability in some way, shape or form to be able to provide for themselves and other people.”

Hart also noted that there is a high level of personal sacrifice that is required to be successful in collegiate sports, especially when it comes to academics. 

“I remember in my junior year, I was an exercise science major and I was put in a lab class that only met on Fridays during the fall,” Hart said. “As the season was going on, I couldn’t make those classes.” 

Because of this, Hart was forced to change his major from exercise science to religious studies and take six classes, equivalent to 18 credit hours, in order to graduate on time.

Hart explained that his demanding schedule didn’t end with practices.

“I remember my freshman year [I gave] a speech — I was in a speech class for my pre-reqs,”Hart said.

Hart said he committed around 16-18 hours a day to the sport. Hart mentioned that, as one of the team’s leaders, he had to constantly watch film in preparation for games — sometimes even in class. 

The second anonymous athlete shared in the sentiment that school often came after sports, contrary to the NCAA’s claim that “student-athletes are students first.” 

“To get the grades that I want, [I] have to form [my] schedule around practice times. So, I’ll have a crazy schedule and I won’t be able to get to everything I need to get to because it’s around training time,” the second anonymous athlete said. “If I have to sacrifice time, usually it’s for school versus [my sport].”

Along with their schedules and success in school, student-athletes also put their bodies on the line. Senator Parker’s bill in New York intends to address this issue. 

In an exclusive interview with The Signal, Sen. Parker said, “We know that college sports is replete with stories of exceptional players getting injured and losing their whole career with no compensation from the NCAA or the universities.” 

Parker intends to solve this problem by mandating the establishment of an injury fund at all colleges impacted by his bill.

Sen. Parker is confident New York will become one of the next states to pass legislation allowing athletes to profit.

“I will tell you now, I expect to have the votes to pass this,” Parker said. 

So, what is the future of similar legislation in Georgia and other states?  

Georgia House Representative Demetrius Douglas, a former University of Georgia linebacker who also played in the NFL, believes similar legislation in Georgia is possible.

“I am for it,” Douglas said. “Being a former athlete, I know what this entails.” 

From the brand of shoes a student-athlete wears to the numbers they wear on their backs, “everyone else makes money but [student athletes],” he said.

South Carolina state Senator Marlon Kimpson agrees. He feels the NCAA’s system is “archaic.”

Kimpson’s bill, like Parker’s, will include an injury compensation fund, something he became passionate about after witnessing former University of South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore’s career ruined by severe knee injuries. 

“The only people who are expressing real opposition are people who are currently making millions of dollars off the current system,” Kimpson said.  

Compensating student athletes is something Parker believes will bring more good than harm to the NCAA.

“If you are paying [student athletes], not only do you get rid of the scandals around having to support players, but also, you get to a place where many athletes will decide to stay instead of going on to the professional leagues,” Parker said. “So, at the end of the day, I think this is a gift in disguise for the NCAA.”

Charlie Cobb, Georgia State’s director of athletics, disagrees. Cobb was a four-year letterman at NC State who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1990 and later went on to earn his master’s degree in sports administration from the University of Ohio.

“There is already an economic divide between the Power Five and Group of Five,” he said, adding that direct payouts to student-athletes “would further grow” that divide.

Cobb believes mid-major schools, like Georgia State, could struggle to share a revenue percentage with their student-athletes. 

It should be noted that Georgia State is one of the few Sun Belt Conference schools that offer its student-athletes a direct stipend, worth $1,500 per semester, on top of any additional scholarship or grant they may receive. The stipend is paid out in the form of a check or direct deposit, alongside the athlete’s housing and meal stipends. 

“Our expenses are in three buckets: scholarships, salary benefits for our staff and operating dollars for our teams,” Cobb said. “If you took [a percentage] of our budget and re-allocated it back to the [athletes], my guess is we would pull from other sources.”

Cobb believes that the stipend program might need to disappear in order to help re-balance the books, should Georgia State be mandated to directly pay student-athletes in the future.  

And in terms of student-athletes profiting from their names and likenesses, Cobb is open to a number of future possibilities, but he believes in the current NCAA model. 

“I don’t think I was harmed in any way, shape or form [when I was a student-athlete],” Cobb said. 

Georgia State University President Mark Becker declined to comment on the issue via university spokeswoman Andrea Jones, who said he does not comment on “what-if scenarios.”