N.C.A.A. Considers Loosening Rules for Athletes Seeking Outside Deals

ATLANTA — The N.C.A.A. Board of Governors, under increasing pressure from legislatures around the country, voted Tuesday to pave the way for college athletes to profit off their fame, but it came with an elephant-size caveat: any future changes must maintain clear distinctions between amateur and professional athletes.

The vote marked a surprising turn by the N.C.A.A., which for years has resisted calls for athletes to be compensated for the use of their names, images and likenesses, and whose board was largely expected to do little more than give a committee studying the issue more time to do its work.

But the N.C.A.A. president, Mark Emmert, acknowledged that the passage of a bill in California, the emergence of more than a dozen others nationwide and the voices of prominent athletes like LeBron James had nudged his organization into action.

“There’s no question that the legislative efforts in Congress and in states has been a catalyst to change,” Emmert said. “It’s clear that the schools and the presidents are listening and have heard loud and clear that everybody agrees that this is an area that needs to be addressed.”

How drastic that change will be, though, remains an unanswered question.

A committee that was formed in May in response to the measure then working its way through the California legislature will continue to hash out how far the reforms will go and how they will be enforced.

The guidelines for that included: affirming that athletes are not employees; treating the opportunities for athletes the same as those for non-athletes unless there is “a compelling reason” not to do so; that new rules be transparent and enforceable; and that recruiting inducements be prohibited.

The committee will issue another report at the N.C.A.A.’s annual convention in January, in Anaheim, Calif., and then again at another board of governors meeting in April.

“How can you hold on to it where it’s fair for the students, but fair for the schools and in a way that supports this commercial enterprise that has made all these opportunities available?” said Val Ackerman, the commissioner of the Big East Conference and a co-chair of the N.C.A.A. committee on name, image and likeness issues.

Nancy Skinner, the California state senator who co-authored the bill signed into law last month that will give athletes the right to profit from the use of their name, image and likeness in 2023, said she was cautiously optimistic about the N.C.A.A.’s move.

“The devil is in the details,” Skinner said in a telephone interview. “We’ll have to see what the N.C.A.A. actually has in mind. I think in California, we’ve been very clear — we’re not going to accept arbitrary limitations on an athlete’s ability to generate income.”