ncaa loosens restrictions on athletes health coverage

The National Collegiate Athletic association  will now permit universities to provide all year round health coverage for student athletes, including non-sports related injuries and/or sickness. This breakthrough for student athletes comes just 1 month before the California Assembly is due to vote on a law that would have allowed California colleges the right to provide health coverage to their athletes without NCAA restrictions.

Previously, the NCAA prohibited institutions from covering student-athletes during many school-facilitated workouts.

"State lawmakers have verbalized their disgust with how the NCAA is treating its student-athletes, and they are sending a strong message that student-athletes deserve better," stated CAC Director of Organizing Ryan Roques.

If passed, the bill would allow California universities to give much needed benefits such as increasing athletic scholarships so that they cover costs, turning 1 year revocable scholarships into 4 year scholarships, and allowing student-athletes to transfer between institutions once without punishment. Upon the approval of this bill, the NCAA would have to change its rules to accommodate the laws or face loosing all of California's universities as members.

The Collegiate Athletes Coalition (CAC) helped develop the proposed legislation known as the Student Athletes Bill of Rights authored by California Senator Kevin Murray. Football players from Stanford University and University of California Berkeley as well as Cleveland Browns football player Daylon McCutcheon came together with other CAC members to testify in hearings supporting the legislation. The California Senate overwhelmingly approved the bill, which is now in the hands of the California Assembly's Education Committee.