Rubes has the NCAA’s back.

Senator Marco Rubio is ready to step in and do something for the kids.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said he is planning to introduce a bill Thursday that would require the NCAA to make rule changes regarding college athletes’ ability to make money from their name, image and likeness and give the association protection from legal challenges to the new regulations.

The first thing you should know about this is that his bill, if enacted, would require the NCAA to make those changes no later than June 30, 2021, which happens to be the day before his home state’s NIL legislation takes effect.

The second thing you should know is that the NCAA should be happy to comply with Rubio’s wishes.

Under the bill, the NCAA would have the latitude to make rules “as are deemed necessary” to:

►“preserve the amateur status of student athletes.”

►“ensure appropriate recruitment of prospective student athletes”

►“prevent illegitimate activity with respect to any third party seeking to recruit of retain student athletes … including any third party” that has “a prior or existing association, either formally or informally” with a school or that has “a prior or existing financial involvement with respect to” college sports.

The latter provision, Rubio said, is intended to prevent “boosters from using this as a way to recruit or retain students.” It is not intended to prevent athletes from making deals with companies that have, or have had, contracts with schools, and Rubio is hoping NCAA will craft policies benefiting athletes.

To shield the NCAA and schools from lawsuits, the bill says “no cause of action shall lie or be maintained in any court” against them for adopting rules under the measure. Because the bill is directing the the NCAA and schools to make these changes, Rubio believes it makes sense to provide them with this legal safe harbor. The association has faced numerous antitrust suits, and a new one related to NIL was filed earlier this week.

The bill also expressly includes a provision aimed at preempting states from having laws permitting or prohibiting an athlete to receive compensation from a university or a third party “as a result of such athlete’s performance or participation in” college sports.

So, the schools get those pesky state laws overridden and receive an antitrust exemption, all that in exchange for a hope the NCAA will craft policies benefiting athletes.  Not a bad deal.

The third thing you should know?

Rubio is part of a bipartisan Senate working group on the issue that was formed in December, and also involved Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Cory Booker, D-N.J., and David Perdue, R-Ga., but he said he is acting individually in introducing this bill.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s a unanimity of thought on this right now,” Rubio said. “It’s not easy to come up with (a national standard on name, image and likeness), obviously. I think it’s going to continue to evolve. But we thought it’s important to have a starting point for it now before the Florida law went into effect.”

If he’s introducing his bill on his own, who’s this “we” he’s referring to there?