It all started with California in September, then last month the NCAA made a statement on moving forward with the subject. Yesterday, the state of Michigan attempted to join California as the next state to start paying student-athletes.

It has been something talked about for years, a debate many have had in classrooms, or in front of lawyers and court judges. Paying student-athletes is something that is coming soon to the NCAA, but certain states might make it possible before the NCAA even jumps on top of it.

Back in September, the California governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill to allow student-athletes to make money off of their name, image, and likeness. Then in the next month, we saw the NCAA make a statement about moving forward with paying student-athletes.

“In the Association’s continuing efforts to support college athletes, the NCAA’s top governing board voted unanimously to permit students participating in athletics the opportunity to benefit from the use of their name, image, and likeness in a manner consistent with the collegiate model.”

The NCAA is giving each division until January 2021 to create any new rules on the matter.

Michigan threw its hat into the ring yesterday according to the Detroit News, as two Michigan lawmakers proposed a bill to let student-athletes in the state to be paid for their name, image, and likeness.

If the bill does become into law, it could be in effect in July 2020, before the next football season begins.

This could suddenly have a huge shift in recruiting around the country and in the state of Michigan in every sport, but football will be the biggest one of them all. Michigan football Head coach Jim Harbaugh has spoken about paying college athletes in the past, in May 2018 he spoke about it during a legal aid benefit in Toledo.

“There’s no doubt that education is the whole ball game, you go from high school (and you need) some form of post-high school education,” Harbaugh said. “That’s your most guaranteed way to have a successful future in today’s world. If you pay players, if you made them employees in college sports, then they’ll have to pay taxes and would the scholarship become a taxable benefit? If he’s getting a $65,000 scholarship plus $30,000 or $40,000 a year, is the government going to look and say ‘you owe us 40 percent in taxes’ and are you paying more than you make back into taxes?”

“I worry about making them employees,” Harbaugh said. “But maybe there’s a way to do some kind of deferred compensation. I think that (could be) a possibility and we’re exploring that right now.”

For football recruiting, players might decide to go to a school in Michigan if they know that they can get paid for it. Football players considering schools like Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State, might take a look at Michigan if they can get paid.

With Michigan being the most successful football program in the state, the players could still possibly win a championship as well as get paid to play the sport they love. Michigan getting better players because of compensation could spur the state of Ohio to change its laws too, which could affect other states and suddenly everything starts falling into place.

California was the first domino to fall and every state might have something in play even before the NCAA has something of their own. There are multiple other states that have already announced similar legislation and are fighting for their student-athletes. They are as follows: Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Washington.

Changes are coming to the recruiting landscape for college sports overall and possibly the state of Michigan if the bill passes.