Those exclusive sit-down interviews that Tua Tagovailoa did with ESPN while at Alabama could soon produce paydays for future Crimson Tide and other major college stars.

The autographs that quarterback Cole McDonald and setter Norene Iosia signed gratis after their contests at the University of Hawaii could before long mean money in the pockets of some of their successors.

And appearing courtesy of the Acme Anvil Co. hotline on a radio sports show could eventually earn more than a polite “thank you” from the station or sponsor.

Come the 2021-22 academic year, the way is opening for players across various levels of college athletics to sell their autographs, profit from their likenesses on T-shirts and other items, cash in on social media, endorse products and be paid for myriad commercial opportunities, all without endangering their scholarships or eligibility.

The NCAA announced Tuesday that it expects to approve in January groundbreaking rules allowing athletes to profit from the sale of their name, image and likeness (NIL). The deals would be with third-party entities, not involve school funds and leave the athletes responsible to the IRS.

Still, they are precisely the kind of opportunities long open to talented students in other non-athletic fields of endeavor not lorded over by the NCAA.

It took the adoption of the “Fair Pay to Play Act” in California last year to finally light a fire under the previously recalcitrant NCAA. Since then nearly three dozen states have either enacted or are considering similar bills. In Hawaii, Senate Bill 2673 and House Bill 1682 have been proposed in the state Legislature.

The mounting public pressure has prodded the NCAA to try to get its own structure in place and strike a deal with Congress if the association that rules college athletics hopes to retain any say in how the future landscape is shaped.

Without superseding legislation, a Florida law goes on the books in 2021 and California’s begins in 2023.

The NCAA’s path is fraught with potential pitfalls, chief among them avoiding the involvement of boosters and a widening edge in recruiting for higher-profile programs.

“The devil will be in the details. Yet no matter how you cut it, this represents a landmark change,” California state senator Nancy Skinner, who sponsored that state’s legislation, said in a statement.

The NCAA board said it would require “guardrails” including the regulation of agents and advisers and separation from schools and conferences.

NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a media conference call that rules should reflect a clear distinction that athletes are not employees of their schools and also erect a “safe harbor” that helps the NCAA avoid potential price fixing and other lawsuits while retaining tax-pexempt status.

The classifying of athletes as employees has been a decades-long fear for the NCAA and its member schools, who do not want to be responsible for workman’s compensation or minimum wage claims. Indeed, the term “student-athletes” was first coined and promoted by the NCAA in the 1950s to help the association dodge claims by the family of a football player who had died as a result of on-the-field injuries.

Push has come to shove and, finally, the NCAA is being forced to loosen the reins it has held on its athletes.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.