Unintended Consequences

Democrats, especially California Democrats, have a chronic inability to “think things through” in recent times. They keep making proposals that are a mile wide and an inch deep, like taxing the rich to pay for universal health care, which turns out to actually solve only 15% of the problem.

Or creating a regulatory agency without rules and mandating that it create its own rules, and then getting upset when it creates rules that they don't like.

California Senate Bill 206, introduced by Democrats of course and dubbed the “Fair Pay to Play Act,” proposes that, “college athletes from California’s 24 public colleges and universities would be able to make money ‘as a result of the student’s name, image, or likeness.’ The universities would be prohibited from taking away scholarships from students who choose to pursue those opportunities.”

The rule against college athletes being paid for the use of their “name, image, or likeness” in advertising is issued by the NCAA (National College Athletic Association), and what they do when a college or university permits athletes to participate in intercollegiate sports when they are in violation of that rule is, they “excommunicate” that school from league participation.

So the Democrat’s “Fair Pay to Play Act” is entirely self defeating. If an athlete receives pay for the use of his/her “name, image, or likeness” and the school does not rescind that athlete’s scholarship, the school will no longer be participating in NCAA competition. When that becomes the case, the “name, image, or likeness” of the athlete is no longer of any value to advertisers, so they will no longer be offered any payments for use of their “name, image, or likeness.” Nor will any other athletes who attend that school.

I guess that does solve the problem of athletes wanting to be paid and such payments not being allowed, but I don’t think that is quite the solution that Democrats had in mind.