Georgia Governor Signs Order Allowing Schools to Pay Players

Georgia schools have legal cover to immediately begin paying their athletes directly, according to an executive order signed by the state's governor Tuesday morning.

Gov. Brian Kemp signed an order prohibiting the NCAA or athletic conferences from punishing any university or college in Georgia for “offering compensation, or compensating an intercollegiate student-athlete for such student-athlete's use of NIL.”

Current NCAA rules prohibit schools from directly paying athletes for rights to use their name, image and likeness. The association agreed to remove its restriction on schools paying for NIL deals as part of a pending antitrust settlement, but that deal has not been finalized. If the deal is approved in its current form, those new rules are expected to take effect at the start of the next academic year. The order in Georgia takes effect immediately.

Georgia's order is similar to a law passed in July by the Virginia Legislature, which gave that state's schools protection to pay their athletes directly through NIL agreements without facing NCAA sanctions.

Virginia and Virginia Tech athletic directors declined to share any plans to directly pay athletes at the time the bill was signed and have not made any public announcements about how to leverage the ability to pay players since the law went into effect July 1.

Sources told ESPN that neither Georgia nor Georgia Tech (the two schools in the state's top conference) have plans to start paying their players right away. Instead, the executive order gives them the option to pay players if other schools around the country begin doing so.

“We extend our sincere thanks to Governor Brian Kemp for his leadership today,” Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks and Georgia Tech athletic director J Batt said in a statement shared with ESPN on Tuesday. “In the absence of national regulation on name, image and likeness, this executive order assists our institutions with the tools necessary to fully support our student-athletes in their pursuit of NIL opportunities, remain competitive with our peers and ensure the long-term success of our athletic programs.”

The NCAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other states have considered enacting laws to help their schools facilitate payment to players. Missouri, for example, has a law that allows schools to send money to a third party, which in turn pays athletes to appear in the school's marketing materials.

If the pending antitrust deal is approved, it will also limit the amount of money U.S. schools can give directly to athletes. The cap is expected to be slightly higher than $20 million in its first year and increase annually.

Under current law, schools in Virginia and Georgia could begin paying athletes immediately with no limit on the amount of money they can contribute. If they do so, the NCAA will have to challenge the new executive order in court if it wants to stop them.