College Sports is never a quiet subject with issues regarding from cheating in classes, to recruitment violations. One of the most current and important issues that faces college athletics today is whether student athletes should be paid or not. Some people will say that they should not because there is not a system that can be used across athletics to pay these athletes or people will say they are there for an education, not to play so why pay them for that? However, I feel that student athletes should get paid specifically basketball and football. The NCAA and other video game companies release video games for college football and basketball every year until 2014. However when you play these games, we notice that the athletes used in the game are number generated only. The NCAA does not ask the kids for permission to use the likeness and image of these athletes but instead just goes ahead uses these aspects without giving compensation because the kids are student athletes not professional. Taking advantage of these kids just seems completely unfair to them and should be allowed some reimbursement. Also, some schools can bring in hundreds of millions of dollars (The University of Alabama with around 142 million) and yet some of the schools that bring in a lot, do not give entirely back to academics. With all that ‘spare change’ schools have, why not give it to the people that brought in majority of that money that being the football and basketball players?
When these college football, basketball, and any Division I college athlete make the decision to play, they have to sign papers and specifically Form 03-9a from the NCAA student athlete booklet says “NCAA to use a student-athlete’s name or picture to generally promote NCAA championships, or other NCAA events, activities or programs”. The NCAA requiring kids to sign their rights away essentially seems like something that is completely absurd. This allows the NCAA to use these kids without having to pay them anything since they agreed they would waive their rights away. However, there was one former student who fought this and his name is Ed O’Bannon. O’Bannon was a star UCLA Basketball player back in the mid 1990’s and helped them win a 1995 title. O’Bannon was one day playing EA Sport’s college basketball game and saw himself in the game and was completely unaware about this which got him thinking. It made him wonder how the NCAA could get away with using his and others likeness without having to pay a single thing while the NCAA and video game companies prosper. A general summary of this case was that O’Bannon along with 19 other athletes sued the NCAA claiming it violated antitrust laws by conspiring with the schools and conferences to block the athletes from getting a share of the revenues generated from the use of their images in broadcasts and video games. In the end O’Bannon and the other athletes won this case which now states the NCAA can’t be using the student athlete’s likeness for free anymore and this has people in the NCAA nervous. The ruling of this case should have them worried because now the student athletes can finally earn recognition for themselves instead of being ‘used’ just like how the NCAA and video game companies did before. It now gives kids fair representation of themselves instead of just being a pawn in the NCAA’s game on how to make money without having to pay the people who generate the money for them and that is the football and basketball athletes. It would be like saying if the pro leagues did not pay their athletes for using their likeness in a video game and profited off of that, would the athletes be happy? Of course they wouldn’t, they would feel they are being taken advantage of. Same goes for the student athletes, if companies are going to make video games off of them, companies and the NCAA should have to give them compensation instead of trying to save money and pay them.
Athletics is one of the many aspects that makes money for many intuitions, specifically football and basketball. According to Forbes, one of the most profitable schools for football was Alabama University earning the school “77 million dollars while putting 6.5 million toward academics” (Forbes Magazine). While the most profitable basketball team is the University of Louisville who brought in 47 million dollars (CNBC). Seeing these numbers shows that these institutions have a lot of money they can give toward athletes because according to an article by Marc Edelman of Forbes, he states “much of the huge revenues collected from athletics do not go directly back toward the classroom. Instead, a substantial share of college sports revenues stay in the hands of a select few administrators, athletic directors, and coaches”. (Edelman, Forbes). While people may think that athletic departments and teams may give back toward academics, turns out that they do not give back as much as we think. Which makes you ask the question, what are they doing with all that ‘spare change’ lying around? If the school’s football and basketball teams can generate so much money, you would think that they can reward the people who bring the money in for the school instead of the person who just watches over them (the coach). Instead top basketball and football programs will overpay their coaches and yet still have money left over! Schools should then use that leftover money, and pay it out to the football and basketball kids because they are the ones who bring in money for the school’s athletic department essentially and should be rewarded for it. While some people may say what about the other sports too, ESPN’s Michael Wilbon says “I'm interested in seeing the people who produce the revenue share a teeny, tiny slice of it.” (Wilbon, ESPN). It would be the least schools could do for the athletes because after all, they are the ones bringing in at least half of the athletic departments profit, so shouldn’t the schools be rewarding these kids for helping out the school?
However, there will most certainly be people out there who disagree with the idea of paying student athletes. Many people’s complaints is that these kids know what they are getting into and should not be complaining. In an article by Scoop Jackson for ESPN he states “You agreed for tuition, room and board, books and to follow the rules of the NCAA as compensation. So don't get mad when the system begins to screw you.” (Jackson, ESPN). He brings up a valuable point because yes even though these athletes are major reasons why the school makes money, every single student athlete that decides to play for the institution knows exactly what they are getting into. These kids should not be mad that they can’t be paid for their services because it is against the NCAA to be paid for such activities and rules are rules that is how the world works. If these kids break the rules, they will pay whether it’s a suspension or loss of scholarship and for what? These kids are here to get an education first, and if they go ahead and lose what was giving them their education, then what to do they become? There needs to be a realistic expectation for paying these student athletes because while it is a great idea, some schools may not have enough money left over after they are all done paying for their various costs and donations back to academics.
Overall, yes there are valuable points for why student athletes should not be paid, however there are many answers to go against those reasons which is why I still firmly believe student athletes (football and basketball) should be paid. College athletics especially football and Men’s basketball are essentially a business because take away the aspect of these kids being and college and what do we have? The NFL and NBA. I will leave you with this video from John Oliver explaining why these kids deserve a slice of the cut the NCAA and the coaches make off of them:
