Shawn Cella
Professor W. Brown
Rhetoric and Composition
25 April 2018
NCAA Athletes: Exploited Across North America
Introduction:
Wake up. Go to practice. Class. Practice. Lunch. Practice. Study. Dinner. Sleep. Repeat. That is the daily life of an average college athlete in today’s world. The dedication that is spent each and every day to their craft is an unbelievable commitment, leaving little to no time to live the life of an average college student. These students don’t get to experience parties or going on trips with friends. It’s extremely challenging for them to maintain a healthy relationship with their busy schedule or get a job outside of the university, or even have time to go home for a weekend and see family. They make the extreme sacrifice of losing out on their last years of being a kid.
College athletes should be getting paid for the contributions and the profits that they bring to their school. The work extremely hard and put their health on the line all for the success of the program, while not receiving a dime. They don’t even have the rights to their own autograph anymore. The NCAA paying their athletes is not only the humane thing to do but should be the legally obligated thing in order to assure a fair and balanced system. The athletes of the NCAA should be receiving payment for their contributions to the organization that they play for.
Background:
The National Collegiate Athletic Association, also known as the NCAA, was founded in 1910. They run the college athletics throughout both Canada and the United States. According to the NCAA, its objectives are to "create the framework of rules for fair and safe competition" and to promote the integration of athletics and higher education "to enrich the college experience of student-athletes" (DiLascio par. 11). They divide their schools into three divisions; Division I, Division II, and Division III. The higher the division, the harder the competition. Each division has their own GPA requirements and will normally only play other schools within the same division as them.
Opposition:
When it comes to paying college students, many people believe that it is an unnecessary expense and they are given things that can be considered better than physical money, such as a free education, access to high-end equipment, and extra tutoring. As President of California State University Horace Mitchell states, “Students are not professional athletes who are paid salaries and incentives for a career in sports. They are students receiving access to a college education through their participation in sports, for which they earn scholarships to pay tuition, fees, room and board, and other allowable expenses. This access is contingent upon continued enrollment, participation in the sport for which they received the scholarship, and academic eligibility” (par. 2). People believe that college athletics are should not be considered employment. What many people do not realize is the percentage of students who receive a scholarship to participate in academics may be much more minimal than assumed, and the percentage of students who go pro are even smaller. College athletes deserve recognition through payment from the NCAA for the profits drawn in from the entertainment of their talent.
Argument:
What is a company without its employees? Well, what would the NCAA be without its players? The ones who are out there each and every day giving it their full effort and who the crowd comes to see. The ones who not only give their time but put their bodies on the line. These student-athletes are being taken advantage of by the NCAA corporation. They are undervalued and underappreciated by their respected programs, while the school reaps the benefits and most importantly, the profits. They are not being stiffed for the lack of money they bring in. In fact, “the college sports industry generates $11 billion in annual revenues. Fifty colleges report annual revenues that exceed $50 million. Meanwhile, five colleges report annual revenues that exceed $100 million” (Edelman par.1). The NCAA would never be making that type of profit if it weren’t for the dedication of their participants. In a normal company, when your employees are making you money and are exceeding expectations, they are rewarded. Saying that they are paid in scholarship and free education is an unfair statement, especially because according to the NCAA only two percent of high school athletes receive a scholarship to play in college, and Division III athletes are not even eligible to receive a scholarship (par. 3). The limited number of athletes who are receiving payment makes for a reason why a reward is beyond well-deserved for college athletes and should be granted.
Compensation for NCAA athletes has to be the next step for us to take. A problem that the NCAA argues at times is that by paying student-athletes by revenue that is brought in from the programs, it would create a Title IX situation because men’s sports bring in more money than the female’s do, but this is not a problem to the NCAA when it comes to the amount of money the head coaches of both sex’s make. In fact, “the average Division I men's basketball coach earns nearly twice as much in salary as the average Division I women's basketball coach” (Edelman par 5). There has been nothing done to try and fix that problem, which leads me to believe that this is not a true issue in the eyes of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. If it were, then they would put regulations in place to even the payment. If your argument to that is they get paid more because they bring in the most profits, then I would suggest that if the coaches get a piece of the revenue, so should the players. Many people believe coaches to be like professors, and they are getting paid to “teach”. If that is the case, why should a someone such as Alabama head coach Nick Saban, who is making seven million dollars per year, get over 160 times the payment of an average Tuscaloosa school teacher (DiLascio par. 15)? Without these student-athletes, the NCAA would not be worth anything.
A major argument that is made against student-athletes is that they are not technically employees, so they should not be paid as such. Well, they are coming closer and closer to legally becoming considered as employees. Recently, there have been some cases in court that suggest that because of the revenue made, and the time spent on their sport, it is becoming bigger than a school activity. The argument of saying that the chance of going to a professional league after school is enough payment is ludicrous because “to limit the financial benefit to the few athletes that make professional teams seems to unfairly deny athletes just compensation in this employee-athlete frame” (Berry p270).
Figure 1
Note. From the NCAA -The Official Site of the NCAA March 2017
This chart shows exactly how many NCAA participates end up going to their respected professional league. As you can take from this chart, not enough end up going that you could morally say that because of their chances of later compensation, they should not receive payment. Even though college athletes are not technically employees, they are becoming closer and closer to having all the rights that true employees are rewarded with. They should start being treated as such, with more respect for their contributions to the NCAA organization and the payment the college athletes rightfully deserve to receive.
Everyone who has ever gone to college knows how mentally demanding it is in order to graduate. Papers, exams, lectures, and projects are given every day and free time and rest is something that is barely ever granted. Try adding the lifestyle of a professional athlete to that equation. According to Ryan Anderson, a college graduate of the University of Alabama who went on to get drafted in the National Football League, “practices at the NCAA level are more physically and mentally demanding then they are at the professional stage. This is partly because unlike the NFL, the NCAA does not have any restrictions on the number of practices and how intense they are. It is also said that because of this, the chances of getting paid at the next level are slim since there is already so much ware-and-tear on the body” (Florio, 3). These players go through hell each and every day, while not earning a dime for their contributions. Considering the excessive amount of energy that these student-athletes are demanded to give on a daily basis is tremendous, not to be expected from most employment, and should be rewarded.
Solution:
The understanding that many people should get is not every school’s athletic programs make an insanely amount of profit. For this reason, and in order to keep the competition of each program equal per school, a percentage of all NCAA revenue should be divided into each program, then given to every individual player. By doing this you would insure a balanced payment for each athlete. Also, each student should receive a percentage of profits made off their jersey sales, at least sixty percent. By doing this, not only would players receive money for the rights to their name, but the NCAA would be legally allowed to sell their players jerseys which in the long run would make them extra revenue as well. This would also provide the very special players who may perform stronger than others a little extra incentive. In order to get the NCAA to agree to this, there have to be petitions signed and arguments made. The voices of the people must be heard, and there is no stronger way to get your voices heard then by hitting them in their wallets. Boycotting the NCAA will deliver a strong message that we care that these athletes are being treated fairly and receiving the compensation that they deserve.
Conclusion:
When all is taken into consideration, it is a huge dishonor that these incredible hard-working student-athletes are not being paid. They are the reasons for the incredible amount of profit that the NCAA is making, they do enough that they soon will be considered employees, and the pressure and weight of responsibilities that are being put on the participants make them deserve a percentage of the profits. If they continue to be taken advantage of, then are we really following the way of the United States of America? People fought for the right to fair treatment and equal pay for their contributions, and just because they are college athletes does not give us the right to overlook their deserving of payment.