College athletes will never be paid a salary to play for their school. There are far too many logistical, economic and legal hurdles that would have to disappear before paying students could even become a reality. The numbers from ESPN can be deceiving. It's true that big time sports like football and basketball can rake in millions of dollars in revenue, but for most universities that money still isn't enough to cover department costs.
An overwhelming majority of NCAA student athletes will make their living doing something else. Those awarded an athletic scholarship get an opportunity to play their favorite sport in state-of-the-art facilities in front of thousands of screaming fans while getting a free education, free meals, and free housing. Depending on the school, a full scholarship can be worth upwards of $200,000. A free degree (especially from a prestigious university) in this economic climate is a godsend. It's hardly slave labor.
The revenue generated from college sports doesn't sit in a cash piñata waiting to be whacked. All those millions of dollars from TV contracts and ticket sales help athletic departments balance their bottom line. At Ohio State, football net profit and "Buckeye Club" donations added up to $45 million. It's a hefty chunk of change, but that only covers roughly a third of the University's $126 million budget (you can find more OSU number crunching here). Fortunately, the athletic department has enough revenue from other sports and fundraising sources to operate in the black and kick in $1 million to the school's library renovation.
However, Ohio State is only one of 22 self-sufficient Division 1 athletic programs (report). Where do you find the money to pay athletes at the other 300+ schools? Even if schools had the money, where do you draw the line? A soccer team or a tennis team might not rake in millions of dollars, but they too spend hours in practice, the weight room, and the training room. Should they make less? What about women's sports (Title IX ring a bell?) or Division III athletes?
Economic issues aside, I still don't believe that student-athletes should be paid. College athletics should be about playing the game you love while you get an education. I was fortunate enough to play ice hockey for Hamilton College (a goalie, when my knees cooperated) and there was no greater joy than getting on the ice with my friends. For 90 minutes, I didn't have to worry about all the reading or the problem sets I had to do for the next day. All that concerned me was keeping pucks out of the net. If you start paying people, you ruin the purity of college athletics. Students play because they want to; not because there's a check waiting for them when they're done.
Lesley Ryder lettered in ice hockey at Hamilton College (DIII NESCAC)
Follow Lesley Ryder on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@RyderReally
Dr. Boyce Watkins: NCAA Athletes Finally Demanding to Be Paid: A Professor's Perspective
Linda Kenney Baden: The NCAA and Feeding the Student Athlete
Dr. Boyce Watkins: The Madness of Not Paying College Athletes
College athletes deserve to be paid - ESPN
Time to pay college athletes - Chicago Sun-Times
NCAA should end charade and pay the players - USATODAY.com
Should College Athletes Get Paid? Ending the Debate, Once and for ...
But the pro teams would never let that happen. They don't want the competition for athletes. It is true the pro teams can pay the athlete more, but it is possible over time the college teams could be competition.
So you want the schools to have the ability to remove scholarships if they choose but if the student chooses to leave they have to pay back all that money.
Would you stand for this in any other area?
There's a difference between being hurt or suffering somehow and simply not getting a piece of the action.
He's still getting a free education, free room and board, etc., while getting to play the sport he loves. Where's the hurt? I'm so sick of the whining about these poor college athletes. Boo-hoo. If the kid's such a great athlete, he'll cash in at the next level.
I'm scrambling to find scholarships, grants, work-study options and anything else I can find for my son who starts college next year. A free full ride sounds pretty good right now.
Money should be put into a blind trust for any draftable college athlete, for no other reason than to provide insurance for said athlete should they suffer career ending injury while helping their college make tens of millions per year.
About 220 college players are drafted by the NFL each year. There are 119 Division 1 college football teams (and every year a few kids make the pros from Division II or Division III schools). Dozens of other players who weren't drafted are invited to NFL training camps to try out. Most don't make it.
So if you do the math, that means an average of about two football players per college even get a sniff at the NFL. And in the NBA, the numbers are much smaller, since you have more college teams and fewer available slots in the NBA.
The truth is that college sports is as far as the vast majority of young athletes will ever get. It's hardly the minor leagues, since so few ever have a chance of making the big time.
And the NCAA has all their talent and they don't have to pay them diddly.
It is supposed to be a free pass to get good education to qualify him for a career that will be useful for the rest of his/her life, which otherwise is beyond the financial capability. This is not the case however. Everyone of these athletes is dreaming of being drafted into NFL / NBA or what have you and making millions and living a life style bordering on vulgar. Their main interest while being at the school is the number of co-eds they can notch up.
None of them wants to put in real hard work to achieve something worth while. I have Put in 25 hours of classroom + 60 hours of work + at least 10 hours of assignments for 3 straight years, without summer breaks and ZERO family support to become an engineer. But than it is me and my priorities.
Some, with real talent, probably have that ambition. And others, with marginal talent, maybe have the dream. But most of these guys know that they're not going anywhere in pro sports.
It is selfish.
1. Amend the NCAA rules to allow student athletes to work jobs if they want to.
2. Amend the NCAA rules to allow student athletes to loan out their own images for promotion. While their image may be derived from on-field performance, it is unfair to say that their consideration in exchange for time/talents in a local television commercial is so connected to on-field performance as to make it the same thing.
3. Amend the rules to give student athletes cost-of-living stipends included in their scholarships - not just room, board, and books and general university services.
For a deeper perspective than Ryder's, see Boyce Watkins's 3/17 blog: "After teaching on college campuses for the last 17 years, I've seen up close how major sports competition can wreak havoc on the life of a young person. I've seen kids taken out of my class to play on ESPN games...I've seen student-athletes wonder how they can help their mothers after they were evicted from their apartment in the projects. I've seen athletes lose their academic opportunities because they couldn't play on the field."
So much for "the purity of college athletics." Watkins points out that the NCAA basketball tournament generates 40% more revenue than the NBA playoffs and 60% more than MLB's postseason. He wonders "if the NCAA is engaging in a form of academic apartheid, given that most of the individuals doing the work to earn this income are African American, and those receiving most of the economic benefits just happen to be white." Ryder's happy experience at an elite school has blinded her to injustices in the larger world of college athletics.
But you don't want it to be a free market for these kids, you want to control what it is you think is fair without giving them the opptunity to earn income based on their value to a school. You know why schools pay these coaches millions, because they bring in millions by getting good players. These good players then in turn bring in tens of millions and yet they are told they can't make money because they are "amateur". It is nonsense. Every single other aspect of college football is professional, except apparently the players. Hogwash.
The only "amateurs" involved is the athletes, everybody else is free to get rich off these majority black kids.
Not to mention a majority of these guys don't have full scholarships and can't logistically work extra jobs with the amount of time they have to put into basketball or football.
How about this you come work for me. I'll give you 50,000 dollars worth of food, shelter, and an education but you will not make 1 cent in cash. And you will most likely be putting in 8+ hours a day of class and other activities in which I will be verbally abusive. Ready to sign up?