by Harley Liechty
It is the first day of sessions everyone and bill ideas and committees have decided the most essential legislation for the floor. There will be social issues, regulation issues, and various areas of concern. One bill that will hit the floor though covers paying NCAA athletes for their commitments to the team.
It has been constantly discussed whether NCAA athletes should be paid or not. The main legislation point is as quoted, “All athletes that are a part of the athletic department at both public and private universities must be paid…at the current state hourly minimum wage.”
The author of the bill, Mullen (OSU), includes definitions of “On the Clock” and “Hours Worked for University”. The term, “On the Clock”, just as work places constitute the definition, is when “people are being paid for time spent performing a function.” For the next definition, “Hours Worked for University” describes when these athletes make official contributions and duties for their school in athletics. Mullen (OSU) even describes the chance for “Overtime Pay”, applicable to athletes who work over 40 hours in each week.
The first discussions for bill 552 were conducted in “The Godfather Part 2 Committee”. The inside source, Grant Holcomb (ORU), addressed that much of the legislation for their committee were very heavily debated, including bill 552, authored by the committee chair, Mullen (OSU). Obviously though, out of all the legislation, the “Athletic Slavery” act was chosen as one of the bills to be put onto the House floor.
The future implications of this bill are very much unknown, but a good assumption is that this bill has been and will continue to be a hot topic for years to come.