NCAA president Mark Emmert sees the political push for student-athletes to have rights to profit more from their name, likeness and image as an “existential threat” to college sports.

Emmert made the comments Tuesday while speaking to a group of Division I athletic directors, according to a Wednesday article by Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports. The California “Fair Pay to Play” bill has been in the headlines recently. When the NCAA Board of Governors told California lawmakers that the law could be seen as unconstitutional and potentially make all student-athletes at the 58 NCAA schools in California ineligible, bill sponsor Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D) shot back, “NCAA, don’t threaten California. Don’t threaten us.”

Emmert took issue with being accused of threatening lawmakers.

“This whole notion that our letter was threatening is ridiculous,” Emmert said. “We simply said, ‘Here is one of the problems that will exist.’ That wasn’t a threat. It was, ‘Look, folks, we can’t have one state operating different rules than the others.'”

Whether players should be compensated beyond their academic scholarship and cost of attendance stipend has been a hot debate over the years with the California bill and others like it bringing the topic more attention than ever.

“My personal view is folks, in general, think that every student-athlete is going to be making hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Emmert told CBS Sports. “One or two will be making some significant amount of money. Nobody else will.”

Dodd’s article notes that the NCAA doesn’t see the potential for partnering with players on opportunities to market their name, image and likeness.

“You’ve got 50 different states with 50 different labor law rules,” Emmert said. “If you move into what are, in essence, labor negotiations, you have to do that state-by-state … It just falls apart in its complexity.”

Dodd’s full article looking at the many moving parts involved in the complex issue can be read here.