State Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley and state Sen. Steven Glazer, D-Orinda slap palms in celebration after her measure to let athletes at California colleges hire agents and sign endorsement deals was approved by the Senate in Sacramento, Calif. The NCAA Board of Governors took the first step Tuesday toward allowing athletes to cash in on their fame, voting unanimously to clear the way for the amateur athletes to "benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness.

The NCAA took the first step Tuesday toward allowing amateur athletes to cash in on their fame, voting unanimously to permit them to “benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness.”

The nation's largest governing body for college sports and its member schools now must figure out how to allow athletes to profit while still maintaining rules regarding amateurism. The NCAA Board of Governors, meeting at Emory University in Atlanta, directed each of the NCAA's three divisions to create the necessary new rules immediately and have them in place no later than January 2021.

Board chair Michael Drake, the president of Ohio State University, said the NCAA must embrace change and modernize “to provide the best possible experience for college athletes.”

But such changes will come with limitations, he said.

“The board is emphasizing that change must be consistent with the values of college sports and higher education and not turn student-athletes into employees of institutions,” Drake told The Associated Press.

A group of NCAA administrators has been exploring since May the ways in which athletes could be allowed to receive compensation for the use of their names, images and likenesses. The working group, led by Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith and Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman, presented a status report Tuesday to the university presidents who make up the Board of Governors.

Smith and Ackerman's group laid out principles and guidelines, endorsed by the board, to be followed as NCAA members go about crafting new rules and tweaking existing ones, including:

- Making clear the distinction between collegiate and professional opportunities.

- Making clear that compensation for athletic performance or participation is impermissible.

- Protecting the recruiting environment and prohibiting inducements to select, remain at, or transfer to a specific institution.

Some college sports leaders fear allowing athletes to earn outside income could open the door to corruption.

“One of the most distinctive things about college sports is this whole recruitment process,” NCAA President Mark Emmert told the AP. “The whole notion of trying to maintain as fair a playing field as you can is really central to all this.”