When it comes to the balancing act
which is money in college athletics, there is never a legal and fair solution
that works for everyone. It is an
unsolvable problem that thousands of athletes have faced, or are currently
facing in their careers. In order to
gain an accurate perspective of the issue, we must look at all sides of the
problem. This editorial will hopefully
shed light on these issues, and what a possible fix for them could be.
According to the National Collegiate
Athletics Association (NCAA), no enrolled or perspective athlete may receive
benefits other than a basic athletic scholarship, which covers tuition, room,
and board. The athlete gets for free
what every other student (that isn’t on a scholarship) has to pay for. The NCAA has set guidelines, rules, and
restrictions on the benefits that a student-athlete can receive. In short, anything outside of the standard
athletic scholarship is a violation.
Many colleges and players ignore these rules and commit the violations anyways. Over the years there have been many cases of
athletes having cars, houses, loans, and trips paid for people associated with
various universities such as coaches, boosters, future agents, and overzealous fans.
There are four groups of people at fault here: the athletes, the schools, the
NCAA, and the culture surrounding professional athletics.
The athletes are the most important
dynamic in this issue - without them there would not even be a conflict. The sports they play, however, might be
infinitely more important than the specific players themselves. There is a definite
distinction between what is considered “revenue” and “non-revenue” sports. A revenue sport is a sport that directly
makes the schools money through ticket and merchandise sales. Across the nation, football and men’s
basketball are revenue sports, along with hockey at most northern schools that
have teams, and baseball at most southern schools that field teams. Additionally, some schools have great
traditions within smaller sports, and these programs also bring money into the
schools. Examples would include
gymnastics at the University of Georgia, women’s volleyball at Penn State, and
wrestling at Iowa and Oklahoma State.
Other than these unique cases, all other sports are considered
non-revenue. The funding that goes
towards these programs is being supported through donations and profit made by
the school’s other more successful and profitable programs. This would include sports like golf, tennis,
swimming, and track. The non-revenue
sports, as the name would suggest, don’t generate any profit through ticket
sales, and barely any through merchandise.
These sports are important, because they make up the vast majority of
college athletes. Subsequently, this has
developed a two-tiered system at nearly every athletically oriented school in
the country. Regardless of the sport or
level, the athletes are putting in serious work and time in order to become the
best at their discipline. While all
these athletes are working hard, the distinction between revenue and
non-revenue stretches to the individual athletes themselves. Some of these athletes are helping their
schools make huge amounts of money off them and their sport, but the vast
majority of collegiate athletes end up costing the school thousands of dollars
apiece.
There
is a high level of hypocrisy in many top schools: they market and sell
merchandise with a player’s number or name on it, and that player gets absolutely
nothing while the university gets millions in profit. Personally, I can remember going to an
University of Michigan football game and seeing thousands of fans walking
around with “16” on jerseys and shirts.
Of course, they were doing this because the starting quarterback for
Michigan at that time was a young man named Denard Robinson. No other notable Michigan athlete had ever
worn the number 16. Robinson, with his
flashy and exciting style of play had made that number famous, and had quickly
become a fan favorite. None of the
jerseys had the name “Robinson” on the back, as it is NCAA policy for no
merchandise to be sold with a player’s name on it. But there was no coincidence that Robinson
had made the number 16 famous. These fans
were not wearing 16 because some middling backup wide receiver in the 1980s had
worn it. It was because of Denard
Robinson, and he wasn’t earning a single cent from this. Another former Michigan Wolverine, basketball
player and future NBA star Chris Webber attended Michigan in the early
1990s. He was part of a core group of
five incredibly talented freshmen that were called the “Fab 5” by the
media. The Fab 5 would reach two NCAA
finals in the two years that all five were on campus. The Fab 5 revolutionized the game by being
the first ones to wear baggy shorts and black socks during games. Chris Webber recalls one time he saw a
storefront that was offering $80 for specialty shoes with Michigan colors and “Fab
5” written on it. Meanwhile, he could
barely afford the coat on his back, while his parents struggled to support their
family. It was no surprise that Webber
would turn pro leave for the National Basketball Association (NBA) and a hefty paycheck
after his sophomore year. This same
scene is reenacted on campuses across the nation every single day – schools using
the talents of young men to make millions of dollars without giving them a cut.
Like most issues, money is the
obviously driving factor here. Aside from maybe having a job in their free time
or offseason, these athletes don’t have any personal income coming in. If they are at their sport’s highest level,
they have no time for an outside job, because their job every single day of the
week is working to become a better player.
As it turns out, even when on a full ride, college life is not free for
athletes. According to a Drexel University
study the average athlete on a full ride owes about $3,200 from his or her own
pocket per year. That translates to
about $13,000 for four years, more if the athlete is in school for five or six
years due to injury or other circumstances.
For many families this is still quite a financial burden, but that is
not the end of it. That same Drexel
study did an analysis of what Division 1 revenue sport athletes would be worth
on the open market. They came to a
conclusion that each athlete in a major sport is worth over $100,000 per year. For football, each player is worth about $121,000
per year, for basketball, it’s over $265,000 per year. For example, a Duke basketball player is worth
over a million dollars per year to school when all factors are considered. Most, if not all, of that money is going back
to the university, while the player doesn’t even have all of his incidental school
expenses covered. Some say that we have
to treat these kids just like regular students.
However, the average, regular, suffering-through-chemistry-101 student
isn’t making his or her school any money!
The
full spectrum of the role of money in college athletics wouldn’t be complete
without something on the NCAA. On the
surface it appears that they either over or under step their boundaries on
countless issues, all while wasting an incredible amount of money in the
process. However, the NCAA has an
incredibly tough job as the governing body for all college athletics, and they have
decided to use their power to limit the recruiting process, set regulations,
and make life more difficult for potential athletes. Their money and resources would be much
better served if they were directed towards compliance and making sure
student-athletes across the country were making the grades necessary in order
to keep their scholarships. But the NCAA
can only do so much. They have to leave
a majority of the regulating up the schools, who sadly are the ones taking
advantage of the NCAA.
For
most college athletes, playing their sport at the professional level is their
dream and goal. The media makes it seem almost mockingly simple: breeze through
college, sign a contract, and within months collect a huge paycheck. While that might be the case for a few individuals
each year, the vast majority of college athletes do not make it to the
pros. That small debt that athletes
graduate with is no problem for the top players who quickly collect their
paycheck, but many who were not fortunate enough to make it to the pros will
struggle with that financial obligation.
Something has to be done for the kids that put in work for four years,
get their scholarship paid for by the university, and still graduate with debt,
never play to play professional sports. This
might not seem like such big a deal, but there are over 420,000 total student
athletes in the country according to the NCAA. With over 100,000 graduating
every year, this is a problem that must be addressed.
The social injustice is that
players, coaches, and schools that are taking advantage of the NCAA and
violating their rules. These rules that
they are violating aren’t just about money and scholarships. There are violations committed daily where
young men and women are getting their grades forged, tests taken for them, and skipping
class just because they are athletes.
The NCAA calls all players “student-athletes”, and they have it right –
the student comes first. They are not fulfilling
the “student” part of their scholarship.
This fair for the regular students that are paying thousands of dollars
for an education that the school is just giving back to someone not to go to
class.
Taking
all of this information into consideration, I think the day has finally come
that we must pay college athletes for their attendance and services. It is my opinion that this is the only way to
solve the problem that has become so significant in college athletics. Now, the opposing argument will say that the
student-athletes have their tuition, room, and board covered, and that is enough. It is much more than the average student is
getting, and if the athletes want more, than they can just go to the pros and
earn a regular paycheck, or use their degree and earn a living like everyone
else. While this is a valid argument, it
doesn’t accurately reflect what collegiate athletics has become. The ultimate
goal is to make college athletics as great and as fun as they possibly can be
for everyone involved. College sports
should not only be the best four years the individual players will ever have,
they need to be the greatest experience for the fans as well. Everyone wants to see the best players in the
country playing in college, because that sells tickets and gets people to watch
on TV, thus making the schools, NCAA, and television stations money. It’s a simple win-win for everyone involved
everyone except the players.
In
order to get the best players to play in college, there has to be some form of
compensation. There is a plan I would
offer that would fix the monetary issues in college athletics and stop any need
for a players union, which some people have suggested as a possible
solution. In fact, football players at
Northwestern University have started talks about forming a players union; but legal
implications involving unionizing will eventually cause it to fail. First, the
colleges would be required to pay all school or athletic-related expenses for
the athletes. The college wouldn’t have
to pay any personal expenses, but every aspect about college life would be
covered, giving the athletes the ability to graduate debt free, if they manage
their expenses properly. Secondly, the
colleges and the NCAA would have to pay a portion of the profits they make
directly involving specific players back to the players. The NCAA would legalize the use of athletes’
names on official apparel, and for the first time the players would get a cut
of any profits made directly involving their name and play. This would not only solve many athletes’
major complaints, but it would keep them in school longer, and give many an
added incentive to play and work harder.
Additionally, the players would not receive their check until they leave
school, and they would receive a higher percentage of the money if they
graduated. The incentive to graduate is
simple: if a player graduates they get a bigger cut of the money made off of
their merchandise sales. Whether this
causes players to stay on campus longer or graduate early is beside the point,
because it still sets them up better for a career after sports or if sports don’t
work out. But these added benefits need
to come with hard work and effort on the part of the athletes. There will be no more cheating in college
athletics, as the NCAA would focus their attention on monitoring academics. If a regular student doesn’t make grades, he
is put on probation, and it would be the same way for athletes: if an athlete’s
grades aren’t up the standard they should be at, they lose their cut of profits
for that year, and risk losing their scholarship.
Overall
this idea will help keep kids in school longer, help them graduate with good
GPAs, and rightfully compensate them for the money that they are making for the
university. Unfortunately, this will not
happen for a long time, as the schools are the ones in the positions of power: they
don’t think they are doing anything wrong, and they aren’t willing to give up more
of their money to athletes. There
appears to be no change soon on the horizon, and the social injustices will
continue unless some types of changes are made. Until that happens, college sports
will remain unbalanced, one sided, and inequitable.
