Should you have a right to know how much money college athletes make for playing college sports? That debate is now raging in Baton Rouge.
The NCAA moves into a new pay structure that will involve direct revenue sharing with colleges and athletes. Louisiana lawmakers are debating just how much the public has a right to know about athlete compensation. A bill that would keep private the income student-athletes get from public universities is now headed to the House floor after winning support in the House Education Committee.
What Will Louisiana Law Do?
This legislation is sparked after we learned of a federal settlement allowing universities to pay athletes directly starting this athletic year. However, the move toward direct payments has sparked a heated debate over the balance between student privacy and government transparency.
The Argument for Athlete Safety
The author of the bill, Rep Tehmi Chassion of Lafayette says revealing the exact pay given to athletes puts those students at rish. Chassion’s daughter played for the UConn women’s basketball team. He says this measure is a “safety precaution” to protect young athletes from being targeted.
“For safety reasons, what a student makes from the university should not be made public,” Chassion stated, citing concerns that his own daughter could have been a target had her financial information been accessible to the general public during her playing career.
Who Opposes this Legislation?
Advocates for transparency in government are trying to block this legislation in Louisiana. The Public Affairs Research Council (PAR) is one of the opponents of this bill. The group says this is public money and taxpayers have a legal right to oversee how that money is distributed…