The state of Virginia passed a bill Thursday that may change how colleges and universities in the Commonwealth will operate in the world of Name, Image, and Likeness.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed the bill into law effective July 1 that will allow state schools to be able to directly pay athletes via name, image and likeness deals. It also makes it illegal for the NCAA to punish a school for compensating athletes for their name, image and likeness (NIL) rights; NCAA rules currently prohibit schools from signing NIL deals with their own players.
UVA Director of Athletics Carla Williams, football coach Tony Elliott, and volleyball coach Shannon Wells attended the bill-signing ceremony. Jeff White at VirginiaSports.com relayed quotes from Williams and Elliott in this article, which provides some insight into how the changes could relate to Cav Futures, the official NIL collective for the University of Virginia, and internal operations.
“The law provides much-needed and practical flexibility,” Williams said, “but we haven’t made any [final] decisions about which provisions within the law we’ll actually activate. We’ll continue to support Cav Futures, we’ll continue to discuss our options internally, we’ll monitor the environment, we’ll talk with our coaches, our student-athletes, and we’ll make a decision that’s best for UVA.”
Elliott said the bill “gives us an opportunity to have a conversation [with student-athletes] without feeling like you’re breaking a rule or crossing a line that you’re not supposed to cross, and it allows us to be able to speak openly. I think one of the things that we’ve got to understand is that this is all new to the student-athletes, and this brings more challenges that we need to be able to speak to. They need financial literacy, education, contract reviews that they need help and support [with]. So it just allows us to be able to speak openly and freely and educate, and I think that’s our role as coaches in the industry that we’re in: to educate on all different fronts.”
Cav Futures signaled its support via social media.
We welcome this bill and look forward to continuing to work with @VirginiaSports and @ADWilliamsUVA to support student-athletes at UVA ⚔️
Go Hoos!
— CavFutures (@cavfutures) April 18, 2024
Naturally, the bill signing created some conversation among Virginia fans too. Here are a couple of threads on the topic:
- Don’t want to overreact and definitely want to give Carla the benefit of the doubt … ~ WAHOOS3
- Carla & Coach Elliott in Richmond this morning as Gov Youngkin signed NIL
law. ~ UVAFan2626
With that, let’s check out the weekly fan picks.
Fan(s) Of The Week
Wahoowa, Wahoowa!
Student Fan(s) Of The Week
Students are always having a good time at the JPJ.
Feature Photo Of The Week
The Virginia baseball team continues to pour it on offensively this season.
