The word went out minutes into last Wednesday’s meeting of California State trustees: The university had asked Gov. Gavin Newsom to veto a bill to let student-athletes seek money beyond the costs of attendance.

But few, if any, of the university leaders knew that Newsom had already decided to sign the measure and push the state into a confrontation over the economics of college sports.

Even if the National Collegiate Athletic Association ultimately prevails in the courts or through other means, it must reckon more immediately with a question whose answer could reverberate from coast to coast: How could some of the mightiest brands in American athletics, backed by some of the most powerful, politically connected institutions in California, suffer such a stunning setback in a statehouse?

“It was always going to get out,” said State Senator Scott Wilk, a Republican who is vice chairman of California’s Senate Education Committee. “But by the margins it got out, it was impressive. It was that perfect storm.”