Message to the NCAA: Don't Pay Players...Just Let Them Get Paid

It has been said that the National Collegiate Athletics Association is the United States’ most powerful, and longest running monopoly. This governing body that oversees college sports has designed a system that operates under the guise of a non-profit organization, yet generates billions of dollars around the country.

The methodology is simple.

The NCAA has turned amateur sports into a lucrative business, but has left the driving force of their enterprise out of the financial equation.

College coaches pull in salaries that can range from five to eight figures when including supplemental income such as contract incentives, athletic camps, appearance fees, and endorsement deals. Athletic directors at many schools also sit comfortably in a six figure annual earnings bracket.

College athletes, even those whose talents will eventually garner hundreds of millions of dollars in future professional earnings, are left with only a renewable athletic scholarship as their compensation.

As a recent college graduate who currently owes his first born child to a woman by the name of Sallie Mae, it would be foolish to discredit the impact that an athletic scholarship can have on a young person. However, it would be similarly imprudent to allow the NCAA to masquerade these scholarships as fair compensation for this special group of students that generate an inordinate amount of money with their talents.

While college athletes receive scholarships that are rife with stipends, perks, and accommodations, the reality of the situation is that many college athletes still live below the poverty line. Scholarships fail to cover basic necessities, and the time that is required to be a division one college athlete eliminates the opportunity to work even a part-time job during the school year. On average, student-athletes are logging over 40 hours per week, fulfilling various parts of their athletic commitments. Combined with an average homework-load, there are simply not enough hours in a day for many athletes to achieve financial stability.

The National College Players Association, an advocacy group that works on behalf of collegiate athletes came to these conclusions last month after an extensive study that revealed several startling statistics. Most notably, the study pointed out that under a standard revenue sharing system, the average college athlete is worth an impressive six figure salary. In its most extreme case, the study concluded that basketball players at Duke University would net a revenue share close to one million dollars.

I am fully aware that it is ludicrous to suggest that we should be throwing seven figures at Duke’s backup point guard and telling him thanks for his hard work, but I do believe that there is a point to be made in the profitability of these athletes.

Amateurism as we know it no longer exists.

Austin Rivers will star at Duke this season

Duke’s incoming freshman guard, and national high school player of the year, Austin Rivers is not an amateur. He is essentially a developmental talent, making a brief stop on his way to millions. It would be more accurate to compare him to baseball’s Bryce Harper. The teenage phenomenon was taken first overall by the Washington National’s baseball organization, but he currently toils in the minor leagues, further nurturing his prodigious talent. Kids like Rivers are what make college sports special. There is undoubtedly an intrinsic beauty that is associated with seeing greatness in a raw and unpolished form. This is the appeal of college sports. Still, one must remember that players like Rivers make up a tiny fragment of the NCAA’s pool of athletes. The overwhelming majority of those who participate in college athletics are indeed amateurs in the purest since of the word.

With this being stated, I find it neither feasible nor necessary to pay athletes in a traditional fashion. However, it is hypocrisy in its highest order for the NCAA to pocket millions of dollars by exploiting the brand-names that some college athletes have become. To the majority of athletes, a college scholarship is accurate compensation for their contribution to the university, and a tribute to their skill in their respective sport. In the case of players like Rivers and many of his compatriots at schools like North Carolina, Kansas, UCLA, and Kentucky, the amount of money rendered in an athletic scholarship is a slap to the face of these athletes when taking into account their earning potential.

In this new age of amateurism, college athletes should be able to waive their traditional amateur status while playing in college, in favor of having the freedom to pay their own tuition by any means that they choose.

A few years ago, North Carolina’s backup point guard and sixth man Bobby Frasor forfeited his athletic scholarship. The scholarship was given to a talented member of the Tar Heel’s incoming freshman class. Frasor came from a wealthy family that could easily afford to put Frasor through a year of college at Chapel Hill, and they did just that. I am proposing something similar as a solution to the NCAA’s currently problematic system.

Austin Rivers, like Kentucky’s John Wall and Memphis’ Derrick Rose before him, is a walking and breathing financial asset. If Rivers were to “waive his amateur status” at Duke, a host of shoe companies and other businesses would contact him immediately. A star of his stature and notoriety could then sign an endorsement/compensation deal for his actual worth. Under this scenario, Rivers would no longer be a scholarship athlete; he would be a professional athlete that happens to be a college student. This isn’t as odd as it sounds. Professional athletes are allowed to play NCAA sports as long as the college sport and the pro sport differ. Wisconsin Badger quarterback and Heisman Trophy frontrunner, Russell Wilson, is also a professional baseball player.

The point could be made that some of these highly-touted future pros would actually stay in school for three or four years if they had the financial stability to enjoy the experience. Under the current system, the NCAA essentially drives away its most talented athletes by operating on a median that flirts with the idea of exploitation.

For the majority of NCAA athletes, the ones that the organization cleverly points out “will go pro in something besides sports” in their commercials, the dirty word that is “paycheck” can be avoided.

However, parameters must be met to ensure the quality of life among college athletes during their time on campus.

First, college scholarships should include basic needs stipends. A monetary supplement from $250-$500 a week in addition to a college scholarship would quell any complaints of students living in poverty. The small miracle of balancing the stresses of class and athletics at this level of competition can surely be rewarded with what equates to a weeks’ pay from a decent part time job.

Second, but probably most importantly, the travesty that is the renewable athletic scholarship should be done away with immediately. Athletic scholarships in their current form are effectively one-year contracts that can be denied renewal for various shady and underhanded reasons. This is why the term “force out” has become so prevalent in college basketball. This is the practice of forcing players to leave the program by informing them that their scholarship will not be renewed. If the NCAA is serious about their athletes being “student athletes”, there is no way that they can stand behind a practice that allows coaches to uproot students from their education due to a lack of production on a sports team. Athletic scholarships should be six year contracts that can only be terminated with a just cause. This type of security will go a long way in stabilizing the climate of college sports.

In closing, the NCAA doesn’t necessarily need to pay their athletes, but they must protect them. Any system that leaves athletes unable to live comfortably off the field is broken, and in need of a replacement. The tides of change have rocked college sports already in the past few months. A change towards acknowledging and supporting student athletes through additional finances should not be a taboo subject – it should be a priority.

(This post is also featured on the College Love Entertainment Magazine website at www.CLEmagazine.com)