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Like the pros: Texas college athletes can now profit off of their name, image and likeness

University of Texas football players, and all college athletes in Texas, will now be able to profit off of their name, image and likeness. (Texas Football/Twitter)
Student-athletes at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas State University and other Texas schools can now earn money with their name, image and likeness effective Thursday.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed the landmark bill into law on June 14 and joined 25 other states that have passed similar legislation. Fifteen of those state's laws go into effect today.
The bill applies to athletes at all public, private and independent institutions. Sports information directors at the University of Texas declined to comment on the matter.
The landmark law is considered by many to be the first of many steps leading to collegiate athlete compensation, but don't expect any of the Longhorns to be riding around in burnt orange Lamborghinis anytime soon. For many athletes, including Texas State volleyball player Janell Fitzgerald, it just means that they can use their fan support on and off the court to promote their name brand. She'd been asking about using her name several times before and is tuned in to news about student-athlete rights.
"As a student-athlete, we should be able to promote just like other people do," Fitzgerald told Austonia. "We put in the same work, on and off the court and we should be able to use our platform to help ourselves and others."
Without a hint of nervousness, Fitzgerald said she told Texas Congressmen why she wanted the bill: With over 100,000 followers on TikTok and counting, Fitzgerald thought it only fair that she can profit off of her name's growing recognition.
On Thursday, I laid out SB 1385 in the Higher Education Committee which will allow students to earn compensation for their name, image, and likeness.
Thanks to Janell Fitzgerald of the @txst Women's Volleyball team for sharing her perspective with the committee! #TXlegepic.twitter.com/8hWm96TWt4
— Jim Murphy (@JimMurphy133) May 8, 2021
So, what exactly does the bill allow Fitzgerald and other student-athletes in the Austin metro to do?
New school rules
According to the legislation, institutions cannot "adopt or enforce a policy, requirement, standard or limitation that prohibits or otherwise prevents a student-athlete participating in an intercollegiate athletic program at the institution from earning compensation for the use of the student athlete's name, image or likeness."
Additionally, institutions cannot stop student-athletes from obtaining professional representation, including "representation by an athlete agent or attorney, for contracts or other legal matters relating to the use of the student athlete's name image or likeness."
More player rights—with limits
The legislature wanted to ensure that this new law was not abused.
Effectively, schools may choose or choose to not sign for the rights to a player's name, image and likeness if the contract with the athlete violates the school's honor code, team contract or part of the institutional contract.
And you won't see any of the Longhorns or Bobcats advertising for tobacco, e-cigarette, anabolic steroids, casino gambling, a firearm the student-athlete cannot legally purchase or sexually-oriented business—all of those Wild West-esque sponsorships are strictly prohibited by the law.
What about autographs?
Yes! Student-athletes in Texas can make money from selling their own autographs in a "manner that does not otherwise conflict with a provision of this section."
University of Texas athletes interact with fans during Juneteenth celebrations. (Longhorn Athletics/Twitter)
Student-athletes hit the books
According to the bill, all institutions that the bill applies to must require student-athletes to attend a financial literacy and life skills workshop at the beginning of the student's first and third academic years at the institution.
Future legislation
Is the NCAA's concept of "amateurism" dead?
While salaried collegiate athletes are far from reality, there has been a shift in student-athlete rights in recent years.
Though the Supreme Court has never addressed potential pay, they did rule that schools should pay for education-related benefits including laptop computers and paid internships. As Justice Brett Kavanaugh put it in the unanimous ruling, "The NCAA is not above the law."
Because of both the NIL law and recent shifts in ideas, Fitzgerald said she's going to continue to tune in to the topic of student athlete rights, especially as her team continues to advance to the NCAA Championship Tournament and gain more recognition.
"I liked being a part of the legislative process, it was super special to me," Fitzgerald said. "I've been following more about what's going on since."
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Popular
(Paxton Smith/Instagram)
Paxton Smith’s 2021 valedictory speech at Lake Highlands High School in Dallas wasn’t the same speech she had previously shared with school administrators. She dropped the approved speech and made a case for women’s reproductive rights after lawmakers passed the Texas "Heartbeat Bill.”
Her advocacy made news on NPR, YouTubeTV and in The Guardian. Just over a year later, the “war on (women’s) rights” she forewarned has come to a head as the U.S. Supreme Court voted Friday morning to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending constitutional protection for abortion access.
“It is up to the people to show up and show the courts and the politicians that we won’t sit back and let this happen,” Smith told Austonia Friday morning. “We will show up, we will fight back. Before, we were scared of them, now they should be scared of us.”
Now a University of Texas sophomore and abortion rights activist, 19-year-old Smith said she wanted to give the same speech in the “the most public way possible” to reach “as many people as possible who don't agree that I deserve this right.”
However, she says the response was “actually overwhelmingly positive” and supportive of her cause. According to a recent UT poll, 78% of Texas voters support abortion access in most cases.
The speech opened up further opportunities for activism: she advocated for reproductive rights at the International Forum on Human Rights in Geneva, interviewed with Variety magazine and spoke to tens of thousands at Austin’s Bans Off Our Bodies protest at the Texas Capitol in May.
Smith also serves on the board of directors for the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project, a national nonprofit organization that helps fund abortions or medication abortion—like Plan C pills—in all 50 states. Most recently, Smith has been attending protests in Washington, D.C. leading up to the ruling.
“This is land of the free. This is where you get to choose how you live your life,” Smith said. “Overturning Roe v. Wade violates everything that we have come to believe about what it means to live in this country. I think a lot of people aren't willing to accept that this is a human right that is most likely just going to be gone for over half of the country within the next couple of weeks.”
Bracing for the next steps, Smith gave some tips for supporters:
- Find a protest to attend.
- “I would say invite somebody to go to those protests with you, invite a couple of friends, invite people into the movement,” Smith said.
- Talk about the issue on social media—use the platform you have.
- “Have these kinds of conversations where people can just talk about their fears and then find ways to go and advocate for yourself,” Smith said.
- Volunteer at a nonprofit near you.
“I feel like a lot of the reason things have gotten as bad as they have within the abortion rights world is that people are not making a scene, not protesting, not putting the effort into ensuring that the government doesn't take away this right,” Smith said. “I want to emphasize that if you're not doing anything, don't expect the best scenario, expect the worst because that's the direction that we're going in.”
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(Council Member Chito Vela/Twitter)
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that guaranteed a constitutional right to an abortion, Friday morning. Moments later, Austin City Council set a special meeting for next month to pass a resolution aimed at decriminalizing abortion.
The GRACE Act, which stands for guarding the right to abortion care for everyone, is a twofold plan submitted by council member Jose “Chito” Vela. It recommends that city funds shouldn’t be used to surveil, catalog, report or investigate abortions. It also recommends that police make investigating abortion their lowest priority.
Council Member Vanessa Fuentes, who co-sponsored the resolution along with council members Paige Ellis, Kathie Tovo and Mayor Steve Adler, said the importance of the GRACE Act cannot be overstated.
“By introducing this resolution during a special session, City Council is doubling down on fighting back for reproductive health,” Fuentes said. “Items like the GRACE Act will promote essential healthcare while enabling individuals to exercise their bodily freedom.”
The act takes an approach similar to when former council member Greg Casar moved to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. Ultimately, state law doesn't allow city officials to order police chiefs to adopt specific enforcement policies so the resolution would be a request to Police Chief Joe Chacon. In May, Politico reported that Vela is having "ongoing conversations" with Chacon about the proposal.
Austonia contacted Attorney General Ken Paxton for comment on the GRACE Act but did not hear back by time of publication. On Friday, Paxton celebrated the overturning of Roe and announced an annual office holiday on June 24 in recognition of the high court's decision.
In a press release, Vela said the Texas state government has a history of overturning municipal protections of human rights. Thirty days after the Supreme Court’s ruling, Texas will ban all abortions, with exceptions only to save the life of a pregnant patient or prevent “substantial impairment of major bodily function.”
Still, Vela expressed hope for the GRACE Act’s longevity. Council’s special meeting on it is set for the week of July 18.
“We know this resolution is legally sound, and Austin is not alone in this fight,” Vela said. “We are working with several other cities who are equally horrified by the prospect of an abortion ban and want to do everything they can to protect their residents.”
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