The Need for Change: Is the N.C.C.A. Exploiting the Talents of Student Athletes?

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.

It is the NCAA’s policy that no student athlete shall receive any special benefits or compensation in regard to their status as an athlete of a university. This basically means that no player can accept gifts or services with any special benefits from school or athletic personnel, or receive any benefits for outside entrepreneurship for reasons regarding their play. For example, a student athlete cannot sign a jersey with their number on it and exchange it for any type of compensation. However, over the past few years, many scandalous conspiracies of soliciting services to athletes for their commitment and play have surfaced. Due to the NCAA’s stance on this issue many of these violations have left athletics programs with sanctions that in reality are very unnecessary and hardly ever punish those who initially violated the rules. The fact is that the college athletics generates on average 10.5 billion dollars of revenue annually, and the NCAA organization alone, about 720 million annually. Of that 720 million that the NCAA accounts for, only 60 percent of that is returned to the Division I universities whose athletics accounted for almost all of it. The rest is dispersed into other funds such as championship games and the national office services, with a small amount being paid to division II and III schools. However, of that 60 percent paid back to the Division I schools, which amounts to approximately 430 million dollars, the majority is spent by the University on

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

The popularity of college sports has risen tremendously throughout the years amongst Americans. The passion to watch college basketball, football, baseball, and other sports has generated billions of dollars to the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) and to various athletic programs throughout America. Even though, colleges are raking in millions of dollars from their sports teams. “Last year 's National Collegiate Athletic Association ("NCAA") basketball tournament generated over $70 million in gross receipts” (Goldman).The NCAA prohibits payments, beyond educational scholarships, to athletes who are the source of these revenues. College athletes spend countless number of hours in their sport every day by attending long and tiresome practices, workout sessions, and film sessions whilst balancing their academics, but do not receive any payment for their efforts. Athletes are putting their lives and careers in danger during practices and games by being vulnerable to any type of injury that might end their careers, and many of these athletes are not provided any type of medical insurance to fund their injuries. Colleges need to realize that athletes often feel exploited because while they generate revenues, they are scrounging to meet their basic necessities and sacrificing their academic and professional careers. Many college athletes, professional lawyers, and sports analysts have taken various initiatives to help

In a country who prides itself on a capitalist economy based on private ownership, trade, competitive markets, and wealth accumulation there are still many places where it can be seen that this type of economic system is not allowed for everyone. One of those places is at the NCAA who brings in extreme amounts of money through selling the broadcasting rights to athletic events and selling tickets at the championships. An example of this is the TBS deal to broadcast march madness from 2011-2024 which only lasts 3 weeks each year signed for a staggering $10.8 billion (Wilbon 1). With that type of money being made off of just one deal and plenty more to go around the question should then be asked why are college athletes not getting more compensation than just their scholarships with all the money that is being made off of them? This question has brought up intense debates due to college athletics’ being considered amateur sports and because of the complexity it seems it would take to actually be able to pay all athletes fairly. However, living in an economic system based solely on supply and demand and with the clear abundance of funds in the NCAA, college athletes deserve to be paid.

In order to understand how and why Title IX has a negative effect on men’s intercollegiate athletics, it is important to understand what the act is and what it hopes to accomplish. The 1950s in the United States marks the beginning of a period of change in our country, The Civil Rights movement was just beginning to take stride at this time. Many associate this as a

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is charged with the regulation of athletes, and all athletic programs in affiliated universities and colleges across the United States. The N.C.A.A. is the association charged with developing and implementing policies regarding athletics in colleges and universities. With such a role, the association is mandated to specify the minimum academic requirements for a student to participate in any sporting activity. The association claims that it aims at creating a balance between sport and education. The heart of the association 's mission is student-athlete success in classroom and on the field. N.C.A.A. comes up with policies that provide a student-athlete with the opportunity to learn through sporting activities. This is a noble endeavor, but some institutions as presented in the article by Sarah Lyall (1) have misused it. In the article, one can see that the University of North Carolina denied some of its student-athletes the learning opportunity envisioned by the N.C.A.A. Sarah Lyall (1). By offering the students free grades, U.N.C. was doing the students a great disservice, which only served the interests of the university.

There is blatant, inarguable proof that the players and their talents are being exploited. These athletes are the draw to the games. They are the reason people watch and cheer on their teams. The amount of money given as a “full” scholarship is a marginal benefit only a drop in the bucket when compared to the market value of a player’s talent and skills. Athletic scholarships, as will be explained later, is indeed financial assistance but still leaves the student athlete living below, or at best slightly above, the poverty line. The NCAA and the respective universities has a duty to be concerned with the overall well-being of its players, not just whether or not an injury would keep their star player from playing in the upcoming game. The NCAA ought to consider the social responsibility of meeting the needs of its players, subsequently initiating a reformation of the NCAA bylaws concerning paying college athletes.

Most student-athletes playing a sport in college are there on an athletic scholarship. The scholarship is granted to them by their respective schools and is worth anywhere from $50,000 to $200,000. According to Edelman, the football program alone at University of Alabama brought in roughly 143.3 million dollars of revenue. In perspective, that’s about 2 million per player. Even though Alabama is an elite program and brings in more than the average football program, the NCAA brought in nearly $845 billion in 2011 per Sonny. Now it is obvious there many ways a university brings in revenue, but it is safe to say that a player is worth more than that $100,000 scholarship. In fact, a substantial share of college sports’ revenues stay in the hands of a select few administrators, athletic directors, and coaches. Now think about what college athletics would be without the world class athletes it has today, or without any athletes at all. If a school didn’t “award” athletes these scholarships, there would be

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries" -Winston Churchill (Brainy Quote, 2013). Unfortunately this has been the trend within the collage athletics sectors over the years and dates back to the historical times when the NCAA was formed. There have been varying excuses put froth by different bodies on why the college athletes cannot and should not be paid ranging from the claim that the education and support they get is of equal measure to the effort they put into the games to other reasons like it is a measure to protect the students from commercialization of their labor and possible exploitation at a tender age. But one thing that we must all ask ourselves is that how much in terms of cash is made within the athletics circles in the name of these college athletes? Who then are the beneficiaries? Where do the vast amounts that are derived from television rights go to? What distinguishes these college athletes from the ones who are barely out of college and play professional football and get paid for it, bearing we watch both at the comfort of our homes? Don't we have college athletes who are a brand in themselves and don't brands get paid just like the ones out of college?

Majority of these profits that are generated from student athletes playing on the field stem from ticket sales, donations, TV contracts, and royalties from licensing and merchandise. Joe Nocera from New York Times Magazine articulated this point very well when he said “It’s important to remember that billions of dollars are being generated by the players and coaches are making 4-5 million dollars a pop. The reason they have fancy stadiums, the reason they have 10 assistant coaches, the reason they have all of this, is because of the labor of the 19 year old kids on the field.” The NCAA is a tax exempt nonprofit organization with no shareholders that is thriving and making millions of dollars off of the backs of students who sometimes don’t have any money to feed themselves. Refusing to pay athletes all for the sake of their definition of amateurism. Claiming that athletes should play for the love of the game and not the money. Jay Bilas, a college basketball analyst, made an excellent point in the movie “Schooled: The Price of College Sports” when he made a comparison of a student who wasn’t an athlete making a salary compared to a student athlete getting paid. He said “My nephew is the student body president at the University of Kentucky. As student body president, he is provided with certain benefits that if he were an athlete, it would be considered to be a

In today’s society there is an ongoing debate if college athletics play a valuable role in higher education. First, when and where did college athletics start? Historians trace the origins of college athletics to Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire when Harvard and Yale had a boat race in 1852. This evidence suggests that schools have been competing for over 160 years which means they need to have rules in place to keep order. The NCAA does have rules in place for athletes. Some rules include scoring a 1010 in the SAT or a combined score of 86 on the ACT along with maintaining a GPA of 2.0. This shows that the NCAA has rules so an athlete must do school work to keep their grades up but, what does the NCAA do to enforce their rules.The NCAA

There are many reasons why these college athletes should be afforded a spending plan and a stipend so that it is easier to resist temptation from those offering to buy them off. May argue that since these college athletes generate income for both the school and the coaches, they should be somehow compensated because the college is generously compensated. This is the reason why college presidents need to employ practices that ensure their foundations are kept running with respectability. This may lead to them receiving less gifts but it will lead to triumph in other ways. If they do not do this, college sports run the risk of continuing to deal with confronting

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

College sports are big business. For many universities, the athletic program serves as a cash-generating machine. Exploited athletes generate millions of dollars for the NCAA and their schools, and never see a dime. In terms of profit, if all ties with the university were eliminated, an athletic program acting as its own separate entity could compete with some fortune 500 companies. So, why do the vital pieces of the machine, the players, fail to receive any compensation for their performance? The answer lies in the money-hungry NCAA and their practice of hoarding all the revenue. College athletes should receive payment for their play to make their college experience more bearable because they create huge profits and