Revenue sharing will ruin college sports

OPINION:

If you’re watching it on television or experiencing it firsthand, the draping of the American flag across one’s shoulders after winning a gold medal at the Olympics is special.

Whether it’s in track and field, volleyball, soccer, swimming or gymnastics, American athletes have always represented our nation with pride and perseverance on the international stage. Our capacity to compete and succeed at the highest levels starts with youth athletes who begin molding their athletic prowess and pursuing their passions at the high school and college levels.

Sadly, a dangerous revenue-sharing bill in California is threatening the future of female and Olympic athletics at the college level and placing our competitiveness on the world stage in serious jeopardy.

Since 2021, college athletes have benefited from their name, image and likeness, or NIL, through sponsorship agreements with third parties, which has helped athletes in California and elsewhere receive fair value for their NIL.

The California Legislature, however, is taking this a step further with the introduction of the ironically named College Athlete Protection Act, or CAPA. This bill jeopardizes the sustainability of Olympic and women’s athletics, which account for 90% of California’s student-athlete population.

This bill would require that student-athletes receive almost half of the revenue their sports generate through direct payments from their universities. The problem is that football and men’s basketball are typically the only sports that generate significant revenue. Those funds are used to support all other collegiate sports programs and student-athlete benefits across the university. By earmarking nearly 50% of a team’s revenue to paying players directly, this bill will cut available funding for all non-revenue-generating programs nearly in half.

Olympic sports have been the bedrock of California collegiate athletics, providing thousands of athletes the opportunity to compete in the events they love and with remarkable success. California sent more athletes to the most recent Summer Olympics than any other state, accounting for almost half the nation’s Olympic athletes.

And because most collegiate Olympic athletics do not generate revenue, CAPA is likely to put immense pressure on their operating budgets and leave these programs facing the possibility of being scaled back or even eliminated entirely. While the bill does attempt to add protections for Title IX, in practice, it would be difficult for universities to comply with both Title IX, which ensures that female athletes have the same opportunities as men, and CAPA.

CAPA poses an especially serious threat to our most successful women’s sports. California has been the nation’s model in consistently producing phenomenal female soccer players, many of whom have gone on to lead the United States to Olympic gold medals. California is home to over 200,000 women’s soccer players. Yet collegiate women’s soccer still doesn’t generate revenue, which means the operating budgets of California’s women’s soccer programs would be squarely in the crosshairs if CAPA’s revenue-sharing requirements become law.

Protecting college athletes and properly recognizing their efforts is of the utmost importance, but it must be done in a manner that does not damage the larger college sports landscape. This is why I am calling on the California General Assembly to reject CAPA and protect college athletics as a whole.

As a former college athlete, Junior Olympics competitor, high school coach and Junior Olympics coach, I know firsthand how transformative the opportunity to compete in softball was to my career. I wouldn’t trade my college athletics experience for anything, and I want to ensure that future generations of Golden State athletes have the same opportunity I did.

• Gina Ayala is a former college softball player at Southern Oregon University. She also competed as well as coached at the Junior Olympics.