Due to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules and regulations no college athlete is able to receive any compensation or endorsement while participating in college athletics. These rules have long been challenged, however no changes have been made by the NCAA.
With universities grossing close to $200 million a year college athletics has turned into one of the top industries in the world. The NCAA is a governing body of college athletics, but without people questioning the NCAA and demanding changes to the monopoly that the NCAA is nothing will happen to the unfairness to college athletes like it is currently.In business dealings around the world, a formula is used to see how much market value a person, property, or business has right now, this formula is called fair market value. In today’s college athletic landscape major programs have players with a fair market value that exceed hundred of thousands of dollars.
For example, the University of Texas football players have a fair market value of $578,000 and Duke University basketball players have a fair market value that exceeds $1 million (Rickman, 2013).These type of insanely high amounts of money are seen all over college athletics. Now with the fair market value the players receive forty percent of all revenue that the college brings in that calendar year. What that means is that college athletes bring in over sixty percent more money to their university then the fair market value.
In 2011 alone the University of Texas grossed over $183 million, yet as of right now college athletes are receiving absolutely nothing. (Jessup, 2013)College athletes work hard and in return major college officials and NCAA high ups are bringing in monstrous salaries while currently 85% of college athletes are living below the poverty line and are struggling to make ends meet. For example at the University of Texas an in state tuition is worth around $4,000 while out of state tuition is worth around $11,000. Now as previously stated, Texas football players’ fair market value is at $578,000 per year.
So at the very least there is $567,000 per player that we really do not know where it goes.I understand that college athletes do not deserve all the money they bring in but if one really thinks about it there is no where else in the world of economics is there a person that spends over forty hours a week and brings in $500,000 per year for their institution, yet they are only compensated $11,000. The numbers do not match up. (Frommer, 2013) These numbers definitely do not match up when one takes into account coaches salaries.
The average coaching salary in NCAA division 1 basketball is a massive $1. 47 million per year. With Duke’s head coach, Mike Krzyzewski, making the large sum of $7. million per year .
While Duke’s athletic director, Kevin White, brings in close $1 million per year. After looking over these stats, one quickly realizes why college athletes are not being paid. In 40 of the 50 states in the United States of America the highest paid public employee is not a government official, but the head coach of a college football or basketball team. In North Carolina the average income per household $45,570 while the tax rate is 5.
8%. What this means is that on average each person in North Carolina pays a little over $2,600 in state income taxes each year.There is enough money going into the high ups of colleges and college athletics. It is time to pay the people that are actually doing the service so these high ranking college officials can make ridiculously large salaries.
(Berkowitz, 2012) One also has to realize that major sports such as basketball and football also support smaller sports that do not bring in much revenue if any. These major sports should support smaller sports like rowing, swimming, gymnastics, track, because these athletes deserve to play just as much as the major sport athletes deserve to.However, these smaller sports give out the same type of scholarships that the major sports do. What that means is a rower who is going to college on a athletic scholarship which makes the college lose money is receiving the same amount of money that the star football player is receiving, yet the football player is bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars for the university.
Athletes bring opportunities and chances to the college and their students that otherwise would not be able to happen. (Nocera, 2013) Many do not understand how much a student athlete for a major college sport bring to a college.When athletes succeed greatly at a national and regional level it brings publicity and increased interest to the university that otherwise would not happen. Athletes are one of the greatest promoters of their college.
For example, in 1984 Boston College had a quarterback by the name of Doug Flutie. Flutie would later win the Heisman Trophy, which is awarded to the nation’s most valuable player in college football. With this added publicity Boston College’s application numbers increased by 25% in the next year alone. And their SAT scores increased by the impressive number of 110 points for incoming freshman.
College athletes are not only student athletes they are also a major marketing representatives for their respective university. Yet they are in no way compensated for this service they are providing for their college. We tend to forget that college athletes also cover many non sports students at their school. If not for major college athletes tuition would sky rocket for all regular students.
With college tuitions already being at an all time high, students and their families cannot afford to have an increase in tuition cost. (Edelman, 2014)The NCAA claims that their purpose is for the well being of student athletes to grow as individuals on the playing field and in the classroom. The NCAA also says their ultimate goal is for athletes to end up graduating with a degree. However, the NCAA actions do not support their words.
This year the NCAA signed a deal with FOX to cover the NCAA National Championship game. In the deal the NCAA was forced to have the game on a Monday night. Almost every single one of the players participating in that game had a class that day. Including Florida State University which had the first day of their spring semester on that Monday.
The reason the NCAA scheduled the national title game on that date is for one sole reason, money. The more viewers means more money for high executives in the NCAA. If the NCAA really cared about these students in the classroom they would have scheduled this game during a break in school to make it easier on the student athletes. But the well being of college athletes is not the main focus of the NCAA officials.
Padding their own pockets is far more important to these NCAA officials and the numbers back this statement up. (Edelman, 2014) College coaches and athletic directors are not the only ones in college athletics making large salaries.In 2010 NCAA President, Mike Emmert’s salary was the large number of $1. 7 million.
That $1. 7 million is the salary of organization that is supposedly a non-profit organization. Emmert took over as president in 2010. The previous president’s salary was $900,000, a difference of over $800,000.
In his short time as president he has not made life easier for college athletes. Instead he has been going after athletes and trying to find miniscule issues with money they have been receiving. By enforcing these stricter rules he is keeping the current NCAA policies and most importantly to them the salaries in place.Emmert’s goal is to make regulations so strict that college athletes are forced to stay in college so he can keep the monopoly which is the NCAA paying his salary.
The NCAA was formed in 1906 by Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt’s primary reason to form this organization was to ensure safety of college athletes during games and practices. At that time the NCAA was truly their for the well being of college athletes. At this current time I cannot say that about them.
The NCAA is most worried about money and that is why these large mistakes are being made by them. (Fish and O’Neil, 2013)In 2014 Northwestern University football players organized a players union for NCAA athletes. Kain Kolter, who is a former Northwestern football player has organized the labor union. He states that the current NCAA laws make the NCAA into a dictatorship over all of college athletics.
College athletes will not start seeing changes in the current laws of the NCAA until more people start doing things like the athletes at Northwestern did. These are the types of organizations that will force the NCAA into radical changes regarding college athletes getting compensated for their work. (Greenstein, 2014)Per NCAA regulations college football players are allowed to have 20 hours per week of practice time. Anyone in their right mind would know that the majority of college athletes spend at least double if not triple that time in practice.
With this fact being so well known the NCAA should be enforcing the rule. But the NCAA closes their eyes because they know that if they want their money the players need to be performing at a high level. Without this amount of practice time the athletes would not be able to perform at the level the NCAA needs. The NCAA rule book is extremely long, and there are thousands of rules.
But the NCAA enforces only the rules that might affect them. For example an athlete goes to a restaurant on campus after practice and there is a booster eating there. For any other student it would be perfectly fine for the booster to pay for his or her meal. But if that student is an athlete it is suddenly wrong and could cost the player and his team multiple games that season and also possible scholarships for years to come.
This is due to the fact that this is threatening to the NCAA and the current monopoly that pays their large salaries. (Wieberg, 2008) The NCAA not only ignores violations like practice time but also academic fraud.In 2012 the University of North Carolina investigated academic fraud and found that the Afro- and African American Studies department was changing grades for athletes so they would be eligible for athletics. The NCAA did not further investigate after these self imposed sanctions that UNC gave themselves.
In 2013 multiple UNC professors and counselors admitted to academic fraud in multiple sports including the major money maker for the NCAA which is Carolina basketball. It has been over one year since these new allegations have been brought up and the NCAA has yet to investigate this major scheme of academic fraud.The NCAA does not want to find out the truth about UNC’s academic fraud because if the NCAA found reasons to punish UNC for this it would result in major consequences for all of UNC’s sports and that would mean less money for the NCAA to pad their pockets with. No one would investigate an issue that could possibly decrease the amount of salary they make in the next few years.
(Parsons, 2012) As previously stated the NCAA claims that the education of student athletes is the most important factor in all of their rules.But in 2011 the University of Miami was punished by the NCAA for paying athletes. The NCAA gave Miami the punishment that included the loss of 12 scholarships over the span of two years, a postseason ban for two years, and the vacating of an ACC title. (Fox Sports 2013) UNC was given the punishment that included the loss of nine scholarships over three years, a one year postseason ban, and two years of probation.
It is clear that Miami was given the tougher of the two punishments. (Parsons, 2012) But the NCAA claims that academics is the most important part of college athletics.The truth is that Miami received a steeper punishment because the payment of players challenges the NCAA’s current economic state. If academics was truly the most important thing to the NCAA they would have had investigated UNC much more thoroughly and given them a tougher punishment.
But when it comes down to it money is the most important thing to the NCAA. Overall the NCAA is allowing rules and regulations that benefit them to be left uninvestigated. While minor infractions that are for the good and well-being of the student athlete bring great consequences to the athlete and his school.If the NCAA was a struggling organization than it would be a little more understandable that they are trying to get extra money.
However, the NCAA generated over $845 billion and profited over $6 billion last year. (Sonny, 2012) These numbers are extreme and there is no way that a not for profit organization should be able to compensate athletes enough so that they can live a normal college life. Without the aid of boosters, the college, or the NCAA the student athletes have no way to make ends meet because with spending over 40 hours a week in practice that does not leave them enough time to get a job.That is why I believe that college athletes if they are good enough and popular enough that if they want to sell their own signature or endorse a product they should be able to.
The NCAA just does not want to lose funds that they think deserve to be in their own pockets. The athletes made their image and they deserve to reap the benefits of their hard work at any point in their lives, even in college. The NCAA’s rule book is made for the best of the NCAA, not for the student athletes. The student athletes work extremely hard at their sport and on their public image.
If these student athletes have worked that hard and generate so much money for the NCAA and their universities they deserve to be compensated enough to live a normal life. Take away the large salaries from the head coaches, the athletic directors, and the NCAA high ups, then there will be enough funds to compensate these student athletes. Until a group of people like Northwestern football players start to challenge the NCAA no changes will be made in the current economic monopoly that is the NCAA.
