TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Feb 27, 2020

A new House “sports calendar” will now deal with bills before the General Assembly dealing with student-athletes, the Daily Memphian reports. Several of the bills before the House Higher Education Subcommittee were prompted by the NCAA’s suspension of University of Memphis basketball star James Wiseman, who opted to leave the team to prepare for the NBA draft after his suspension. On the calendar will be HB 2648 and HB 2649 from Rep. Joe  Towns, D-Memphis, and HB 1694 from Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis. The bills focus on allowing student-athletes to get paid for endorsements or for use of their name, image or likeness, preventing universities from penalizing athletes for receiving gifts from boosters. The bills would also lead to the creation of a fund to make one-time payments to eligible athletes who don’t go pro after graduation.