Sacramento State athletics could be demolished if Senate Bill 193 passes, said athletic director Terry Wanless.

The ramifications of the bill, known as the Student Athlete Bill of Rights, could affect 47 four-year college institutions in California, home to approximately 18,000 student athletes.

“I think the bill is questionable in its merit, based on the percentage of the people that are truly affected by it,” Wanless said of the legislation, introduced by state Senators Kevin Murray and John Burton.

The bill, which was already passed by the state Senate, proposes seven changes to current college regulations for athletic departments in California. Some of the changes include covering the cost of scholarships, health insurance and athletes’ ability to hire agents while still in school.

If the bill passes, the new laws would be in direct violation of the rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. President of the NCAA, Myles Brand, was present at a summit meeting for all 47 California colleges on Oct. 28. The meeting informed the schools’ representatives that if the bill passes, California colleges would be omitted from the NCAA, losing their funding and championship opportunities.

Sac State, whose athletic department does not make a profit, would lose $375,000 of its budget, while the entire state would lose $40 million.

“It would be the end of intercollegiate athletics as we know it,” Wanless said. If you’re a high school student athlete, why would you attend an institution in your state that doesn’t have championship opportunity versus going to another school that does?”

One of the main points of the bill is to change the scope of full scholarships from covering the cost of tuition, books and room and board. The bill asks that the full scholarship cover a cost of living expense versus the traditional cost of attendance expenses.

Sac State full-scholarship athletes are currently given $9,300 a year. Another $2-3,000 would be tacked on to that total for cost of living expenses.

The bill also calls for year-round health insurance for student athletes, regardless of if the injury pertains to sports or not. Current legislation provides health insurance for nine months out of the year, but the bill would require schools to provide health insurance for any injury at any time until the student was ready to return to game action.

“Part of the good side and the bad side of this bill is that it really affects a very small portion of our athletic population, because many of the issues in this bill are reflective of some very unique circumstances,” Wanless said. “But it covers such a broad-based group that it is really the student athlete NCAA championship opportunities at risk for the benefit of the very few.”

The bill also proposes relaxed work regulations enforced upon student athletes. The rule, which used to be that athletes could only earn up to $2,000 in the offseason, changed last year. Student athletes can now find work any time of the year as long as they are compensated with a wage that is equal to the work.

“In other words, they can’t make $100 an hour turning off the lights in the gym,” Wanless said.

The bill would also allow student athletes to obtain representation from sports agents while they were still in college.

“Institutions in most cases are not making millions of dollars off their athletic program,” Wanless said. “We do not have coaches being paid a $1 million. We are doing the best job we can with providing the resources in a broad-based fashion to a variety of different programs to both genders in a way that we think is fair and cost responsible.”

The Pacific-10 Conference is organizing the California schools, asking all 47 to do their best to educate local legislators about what the consequences of passing the bill would be and also informing legislators on the current stance of the NCAA.

“I have the confidence that good decisions will be made in this regard in the future,” Wanless said.