Each season college students and fans support their sports team in hopes of a National Championship Title. They purchase season tickets, team clothing, and expensive sports packages from television providers in order to watch their team from afar. This generates a lot of cash for universities and retailers.
Ed O 'Bannon was a college basketball star. In the 1994-95 season, he led his UCLA team to a national championship. He scored 30 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in the championship game, and was named the nation 's most outstanding player. These days O 'Bannon coaches a high school basketball team and sells cars in Las Vegas.
But O 'Bannon 's college glory days live on. He can still be watched making the shot that clinched the national title in television rebroadcasts of classic games. His image is sold on trading cards and in video games. O 'Bannon 's college image is still making money for the NCAA through licensed merchandizing. Now O 'Bannon is suing the NCAA for a part of those profits.
To fully understand why this is such a hot topic, one must understand college student athletes as amateurs and why it is important to understand the basis for NCAA in college competition. In order for college students to be granted eligibility as an athlete, they must certify as amateurs and sign a consent form. All student athletes are required to adhere to NCAA amateurism requirements in order to remain eligible for college competition. A student athlete will lose
With college basketball and football originating in the 1800’s, the game has had much time to adapt. Over the years, the sports have become more and more popular, gaining a bigger fan base, which has resulted in substantial profits from the sale of merchandise representing the teams and players. There is one thing that has not changed; all of the athletes are still not being paid. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, is an organization that regulates most aspects of
The NCAA has been around and evolved since the beginning of college sports. This organization is a non-profitable organization, but ironically makes more than millions of profit per year. Branch states “that money comes from a combination of ticket sales, concession sales, merchandise, licensing fees, and other sources—but the great bulk of it comes from television contract”(pg. 228). Meanwhile, the student-athletes do not receive any of this money. This is the start of an unsubstantial business between universities built around amateurism.
Student athletes at the college level are a term used for student who are amateurs, and involved in university level competitive sports and games. These sports require physical skill and rigorous training. The training is done to prepare athletes for competition, and hopefully in the future, the professional leagues. Student athletes that compete at the college level are known as amateurs, because they are not paid for any of their playing time, or any other business transactions that their name is used for. The NCAA was designed to
Secondly, there is a major difference between professional sports and college sports. “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...student athletes are amateurs who choose to participate in intercollegiate athletics as part of their educational experience, thus maintaining a distinction between student athletes who participate in the collegiate model and professional athletes who are also students” (Mitchell). The collegiate athletes’ incentive is the access to an outstanding education. College athletes playing a college sport is not a career or a profession. “The NCAA plays a critical role in the maintenance of a revered tradition of amateurism in college sports”(Ross). This quote is laudable because
Donald Delahaye, a kicker for UCF you may have heard of him. Lost his NCAA eligibility for making and profiting of his YouTube videos. Another name you may know LiAngelo Ball. Couldn’t profit or promote his family made business of Big Baller Brand (BBB) because of NCAA eligibility rules. His little brother LaMelo Ball could lose his NCAA eligibility for making and profiting off his own signature shoe. These athletes all have something in common. All these athletes, these people have either had their eligibility taken or in jeopardy because they were profiting off their image, content, or likeness. College coaches, programs, and schools make millions off their student athletes and the NCAA billions off the student athletes. As more people
When people hear of college athletics, all they think of is a game. Most people do not realize that there is a million dollar industry going on around these athletes. Eric He, a sports fanatic who writes for the Daily Trojan, states, “The NCAA is a nonprofit, tax exempt organization that just happens to be a billion-dollar industry, raking in $740 million per year from March Madness alone” (par. 7). When the NCAA is generating that much money, how can it not go to the players? It is not the
College athletics assume a large role in the entertainment industry of America. Each week, millions of people tune in to watch their favorite team, buy tickets to go to the games, or spend money on university athletic merchandise to show their pride. The NCAA and universities benefit enormously from college sports. The top 10 total revenues generated by universities were all well over the $100,000,000 mark in 2012 (“College Finances 2012”). The University of Texas tops the list with $163,295,115 total revenue from athletics (“College Finances 2012”). Last football season, Texas A&M University quarterback Johnny Manziel won the Heisman Trophy. As the first freshman to ever win the trophy, he propagated over 1.8 million media impressions which translated to $37 million of media exposure (Cook). The University’s licensing revenue jumped 23% this past year due to the success of one player (Cook). The NCAA itself generated $871,600,000 in revenue from the championship games (“College Finances 2012”). All of this revenue is impossible without the student-athletes. The NCAA is strict on making sure that athletes should be treated no different from any other student (Blias). However, the athletes are involved in a heavily commercialized multi-billion dollar industry. As amateurs, athletes remain restricted solely to scholarships as the only form
One question that needs to be answered first is, what is the NCAA? The NCAA or (National Collegiate Athletic Association) are the members that make the rules for college sports at most colleges and
College athletes are not forced into playing the sport that they have devoted their time to during their years in secondary education. They continue to play into the college level for their love of the game.
College student-athletes are amateurs and should be treated as such. Playing in the NCAA as an athlete means that you are an amateur and not a professional. “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.” (Mitchell). These athletic programs allow the players to continue playing the sports they love at a higher level while receiving a higher education as well. College sports would turn into a bidding war, create a “free agency” and ruin the overall idea of amateurism that the NCAA was founded on if salaries were involved. Larger schools that make more revenue or have more money to offer could easily persuade the top recruits to come and play for them. This would create a bidding war and a certain type of “free agency” that is foreign to the NCAA because the idea of being an amateur
Many problems going around about college sports and colleges athletes. Most colleges all over the nation allow the college to have sports but then there are some that don't. Being in a sport in college is just like basically having a job. You would need to be dedicated to this and not have much time for anything else. Practices can last anywhere from 4 to 6 hours a day just for one thing. Kind of crazy to think about something like this. Many people just simply don't have the time to do sports in college because they have a real job outside of school. This is different compared to high school because you would have time then and now you don't have much time for anything else at all. There are college athletes basically everywhere you go. Whether they play for universities or juts community colleges, it's all the same thing. The only big difference about this is the price differences. Universities are much more expensive then when playing for a community college so that's why people get scholarships.
College athletes are not being paid for their labor, which schools profit from. “The NCAA (National College Athletics Association) earns about $4 billion in licensing fees each year. In 2010, the NCAA signed a 14-year, $10.8 billion contract with CBS and Turner Sports to have exclusive rights to show the men’s college basketball tournament, which takes place every year” (Miller). Student-athletes are being exploited by the NCAA and there’s nothing they can do about it. Exploitation happens when student-athletes, who are making large amounts of money for their schools, often are not receiving any kind of admissible, quality education. Another form a student-athlete is exploited, the value of
Sports as a whole creates billions of dollars in revenue from many different avenues. The industry has a rare monopoly in a market of elite talent, elite level coaches and elite loyalty from a viewership base that will watch whatever is broadcast on their television. This massive fan base creates strong opportunities for corporations to maximize the impact of their marketing strategies by paying to be associated with certain events that bring in millions of viewers. College football bowl games are one of these events. For nearly a century, bowl games have been the pinnacle of college entertainment, raising millions of dollars per game and attracting viewership from people all around the world.
There has been amplified debate on the treatment, education, training of the college athlete. To avoid exploitation of athletes, “The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), formed in 1905, set bylaws requiring college student-athletes to be amateurs in order to be eligible for intercollegiate athletics competition” (Schneider n.p.). Intercollegiate athletics have dramatically changed over the last several decades. Currently, intercollegiate athletics generate tremendous amounts of revenue, remarkably in football and basketball. College sports in America is a
Dating back to ancient Greek culture, humans have always enjoyed partaking and watching athletic events. People would travel from all over the globe to see some of these sporting events. The same holds true today, with people from all over the world travelling to play and watch both amateur and professional sports. Amateur competition is viewed as one of the ground rules of college sports. It’s what separates the college men and women from the professional men and women. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) defines amateurism of its athletes as follows: “Student-athletes shall be amateurs in an intercollegiate sport, and their participation should be motivated primarily by