The Omaha senator added he would vote for Hunt’s bill to keep Nebraska’s colleges and universities competitive with other states until the federal government intervened.
Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte echoed Lathrop, raising concerns that coaches recruiting high school athletes to play in college might be replaced by donors or business leaders.
“Coach (Scott) Frost won’t be sitting across from a student-athlete,” he said of the Husker football coach. “An advertiser will be sitting across from them offering them $150,000. Then Alabama will come in with $200,000. It will be a bidding war.”
While Lathrop voted in support, Groene cast a vote against advancing the bill.
Other opponents, such as Sen. Bruce Bostelman of Brainard, said Hunt’s bill would allow college athletes to earn money in excess of what their non-athlete peers who work on behalf of the university in research labs or teaching can earn.
And Sen. Julie Slama of Peru said it widened the divide between “the haves and the have-nots” — athletes at smaller colleges and universities such as Peru State College in her Southeast Nebraska legislative district who wouldn’t have the opportunity to earn as much as athletes at big-time programs.
Slama, who voted to advance the bill, also added it did not limit what kinds of endorsement deals a college athlete could pursue. Athletes could seek to be paid to spread messages on behalf of Planned Parenthood or the National Rifle Association, Slama said, or get sponsorships from bars or strip clubs.
— Lincoln Journal Star to journalstar.com
