When Gov.Jerry Brown announced Thursday he had signed a new bill, the state of California became the first ever state to approve a law which obliges the state's top college sports program to financially protect the athletes who suffer career-ending injuries.

The Senate Bill 1525 authored by State Senator Alex Padilla is now a law and will be known as "Student-Athlete Bill of Rights."

"This legislation is the first of its kind in the nation and promises student-athletes important protections that should have been in place long ago. California is leading the way by establishing these standards for their universities," said Ramogi Huma, President of the National College Players Association.

Under the new law, the universities will have to offer academic scholarships to student athletes who lose their sports scholarship after injuring themselves while playing the sport.

In addition, the schools are also expected to cover health care premiums for low-income student-athletes, among other provisions.

But, the new law is applicable to only to those schools whose sports program generate on an average more than $10 million per year in media revenues.

As current media revenue contracts demonstrate, University of California Los Angeles, University of California Berkeley, Stanford and University of Southern California are the only schools in the state that come under the law. But, San Diego State University may also eventually be required to comply as The Associated Press reports, the school recently 'switched to a different conference with more lucrative television rights.'

The final version of the bill was opposed by Stanford saying it is unfair to include only the top money-generating universities.

"This bill puts 'student' back in 'student-athlete' by requiring these elite universities to provide appropriate medical care and alternative scholarships to those student-athletes who are injured and lose their athletic scholarships. It also makes graduation of all student-athletes a greater priority," said Senator Alex Padilla.

He also thanked the Gov. Brown for signing his bill.

The bill is effective Jan, 2013. But, it will come into practice for the year 2013-2014 and this year's outgoing seniors won't be affected.