Nearly three years ago, when Gov. Gavin Newsom joined LeBron James and his ensemble to sign California’s historic “Fair Pay to Play Act” into law on James’ HBO show “The Shop,” Newsom was more than happy to tell the truth about college sports. In fact, he seemed downright giddy.
“The jig’s up,” Newsom said on Sept. 30, 2019. “Billions and billions of dollars, 14-plus billion dollars goes to these universities, a billion-plus revenue to the NCAA themselves, and the folks who are putting their lives on the line, putting everything on the line, are getting nothing.”
Newsom rightfully predicted that Senate Bill 206, which allowed California college athletes to profit from the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) for the first time, was going to induce a flood of similar legislation across the country, forcing the NCAA’s hand and forever altering the “power arrangement” between player and school.
Maverick Carter, James’ longtime friend, asked the governor who was the bill’s biggest opposition.
“School presidents,” Newsom said without hesitation. “They don’t even outsource the phone calls. ‘What the hell are you doing destroying college sports?’ … ‘You’re destroying the purity of amateurism.’ Not once did they talk about the needs of these kids.”
Right before signing the bill, there was a smugness about Newsom as he said, “I don’t want to say this is checkmate. But this is a major problem for the NCAA.”
Three weeks ago when UCLA ditched the Pac-12 Conference and University of California system peer UC Berkeley for the Big Ten, the big business of college sports suddenly became a major problem for Gavin Newsom.
Or at least that’s how he played it Wednesday when he blasted UCLA’s handling of its Pac-12 exit, saying that the public university was unacceptably secretive and disregarded the harm the move will bring to Berkeley and other league members. Once again showing a flare for the dramatic, he made an unusual appearance at the San Francisco meeting of the UC Board of Regents to join the board’s closed discussion on the issue.
“The first duty of every public university is to the people — especially students,” Newsom said. “UCLA must clearly explain to the public how this…