They may not have passed his bill exactly as he wanted it, but Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers got what he was hoping for for decades from the Nebraska unicameral legislature.

As he said, it was a "shot across the bow." A warning shot, he said, to the NCAA that state legislatures are concerned about the fairness of the organization's rules, and that if they don't change, they will come back with even more pressure.

Chambers, who has been the biggest proponent of paying college athletes since he first introduced a bill for doing so in 1980, got the state legislature to pass a bill for the payment of University of Nebraska-Lincoln football players for just the second time, and finally got approval from the governor as well.

On April 11, the bill passed by vote in the legislature, and it was signed into law on April 16 by Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns, who had come out in support of the bill when it was introduced.

The bill is significantly different than it was when it was introduced. When first read, it stated that football players at Nebraska "shall be an employee of the university who shall be covered by the Nebraska Worker's Compensation Act and be paid compensation, the amount of which shall be no less than the federal minimum wage." It also said that the university "shall establish rules setting forth wages, hours, and conditions of work governing football players."

The new bill is not nearly as strong, and does not make player payment mandatory. Section 4 of the passed bill says that football players at Nebraska "may be granted a stipend, the amount of which shall be determined by the university." It also allows the university to grant a stipend to players in other sports, and says that instead of granting a stipend, the university can also limit the amount of hours an athlete spends participating in his sport.

A similar bill still has to pass in four other states for the law to become effective. Unless stronger language is added into this law or in bills in four other states with teams in the Big 12 conference, the universities will be able to simply ignore the law so that they don't break NCAA bylaws. In that case a legal battle would likely not happen. However, Chambers was not concerned, because he said the point of the bill was not to force the payment of athletes, but to send a message to the NCAA.

"I could've fought [the amendment] but I let that go," Chambers said. "I just wanted to get this bill passed to show the NCAA that the state legislatures are watching them, and that they need to change their rules. The most important part about this bill is the legislative findings."

Chambers refers to the first two sections of the bill in which the reasons for the creation of the bill are explained. Among them is a statement that says that "Rules of the [NCAA] prohitibing compensation are unduly restrictive and unreasonable, promote unfairness, encourage dishonesty in recruting and retaining players, and would not be tolerated if applied to all students."

According to NCAA senior advisor to the president Wally Renfro, the organization has always understood the message Chambers is trying to get across, it just doesn't agree with his methods.

"What Senator Chambers wants is the same thing as what intercollegiate athletics wants, and that's to close the gap between a full scholarship and the full cost of attending the university," Renfro said. "He just wants to do it with a stipend, and we think that goes against the definition of amateurism."

Renfro pointed out that the NCAA recently announced the formation of a new fund for student athletes. The NCAA already has a Special Assistance Fund, which gives Pell Grant-receiving athletes the ability to get up to $500 a year for their needs. The fund had $10 million last year and will go up to $15 million next year. The new fund, known as the Student Athlete Opportunity Fund, allows athletes that are not receiving Pell Grants to receive such funds. It will hold $17 million in available funds.

"The conferences have responsibility over who gets the money, and from the feedback we've received, they see the new fund as an extension of the Special Assistance Fund that will allow them to fill all the needs the Special Assistance Fund should, and then address the next most needy after that," Renfro said.

Renfro said that the NCAA did not prepare for any legal troubles, and was not concerned about the passing of the bill because stipends were not made mandatory and the law still needed to pass in four other states.

Chambers has yet to start working on getting similar bills passed elsewhere, and will not reveal his next move.

"I'm the type of person who never reveals the cards in his hand," he said. "I may not even be done on this state level yet, because that 'may' can easily be changed to 'shall.' In legislation, you try to move incrementally, build a foundation and go from there. You don't try to do everything at one time... It's an ongoing contest, and I don't want to reveal my plans yet, but I definitely plan to continue working on it."