Pay College Athletes
Published in the Boulder Daily Camera, October 16, 2011
Every year, college football experiences a bunch of NCAA-induced scandals. This year’s a good one involving some of the nation’s best teams, Ohio State and Miami. What’s their crime? In the end, it comes down to this: student athletes who are making millions for their Universities are being illicitly compensated for more than their college costs.
Let’s step back for a moment and ask a simple question: When is it ever morally right to outlaw pay to young people, many of whom are minorities, who are creating a product that an organization is making a fortune from? Yet, that is exactly the system American colleges have had in place for decades. College football and basketball programs have become money making machines and the young players are the stars of the show. Yet, compensating them for more than room, board, and tuition is strictly forbidden. In any other world, this would be seen for what it is – exploiting young peoples’ interests and aspirations for financial gain, and it would not be tolerated. Instead, we treat paying college athletes as a crime.
Consider the money involved just at the University of Colorado. Over the next decade, the Pac 12 will pay CU over $20M per year for television rights to some (not all) of men’s college football and basketball games. Add to that over $10M in ticket sales and another $10M from other known income sources, and these programs will bring in about $40M per year. Expense figures are hard to come by, but in 2005, total expenses, including scholarships, reported by CU to the NCAA for men’s football and basketball were about $14M per year. To be safe let’s assume that they are now closer to $18M. This gives these two Colorado athletic programs an annual operating profit of about $22M.
So, how much of this went to the student athletes? In the 2010 academic year, Colorado paid a total of about $7M in athletic student aid across all sports, men and women. Men’s football and basketball scholarships account for about half of that, which makes the total compensation for these student athletes less than 10% of the total revenue the University of Colorado received for these sports alone. Any business making this profit that paid their star workers such a dismal percentage of revenue would be rightfully called exploitative.
Why do Universities through the Mother Ship NCAA perpetuate this system? The most obvious answer, and the most morally repugnant, is that they make more money for other academic activities by not paying their athletes. Universities rightfully point out that they are providing student athletes with an education and, sometimes, a chance to become a professional athlete. Good points, but consider this – most other college scholarships are either based on past student performance (i.e., academic scholarships) or future commitments (i.e., scholarships committing a student to a profession after graduation). College athletic scholarships come with an obligation for the student while at school – entertaining us with outstanding athletic performance, which takes lots of time and makes the University lots of money. So, a student sitting in the library on a work-study job is paid whereas a college athlete spending hours every day preparing for a game is not. The bottom line is that athletes must work hard at their sport, maintain their grades and, if they want pocket money and don’t have parents who can give it to them, either find a job or generous alumni willing to cheat.
Another perspective - in 2010, there were 20 college football coaches making over $2.3M annually. This means that some coaches are compensated more than the total amount of student aid received by all players on their team. Athletic department staff get rich and student athletes need to find a job.
Fixing this problem is easy – the NCAA can just change the college athlete compensation rules to allow players to be given more than their basic college costs. For example, Universities could be allowed to pay twenty football players an additional $20,000 per year and ten more an additional $10,000 for a total cost of $500,000, or about 1-3% of CU’s projected revenue from that sport.
And, any changes should be for all college sports, not just today’s money-makers. As I was channel surfing last week, I came across a broadcast of women’s college volleyball. Allow universities to pay them too, if they so choose.
The current system is neither fair nor smart. It exploits young athletes and breeds corruption. It is not hard to fix. What are we waiting for?
Every year, college football experiences a bunch of NCAA-induced scandals. This year’s a good one involving some of the nation’s best teams, Ohio State and Miami. What’s their crime? In the end, it comes down to this: student athletes who are making millions for their Universities are being illicitly compensated for more than their college costs.
Let’s step back for a moment and ask a simple question: When is it ever morally right to outlaw pay to young people, many of whom are minorities, who are creating a product that an organization is making a fortune from? Yet, that is exactly the system American colleges have had in place for decades. College football and basketball programs have become money making machines and the young players are the stars of the show. Yet, compensating them for more than room, board, and tuition is strictly forbidden. In any other world, this would be seen for what it is – exploiting young peoples’ interests and aspirations for financial gain, and it would not be tolerated. Instead, we treat paying college athletes as a crime.
Consider the money involved just at the University of Colorado. Over the next decade, the Pac 12 will pay CU over $20M per year for television rights to some (not all) of men’s college football and basketball games. Add to that over $10M in ticket sales and another $10M from other known income sources, and these programs will bring in about $40M per year. Expense figures are hard to come by, but in 2005, total expenses, including scholarships, reported by CU to the NCAA for men’s football and basketball were about $14M per year. To be safe let’s assume that they are now closer to $18M. This gives these two Colorado athletic programs an annual operating profit of about $22M.
So, how much of this went to the student athletes? In the 2010 academic year, Colorado paid a total of about $7M in athletic student aid across all sports, men and women. Men’s football and basketball scholarships account for about half of that, which makes the total compensation for these student athletes less than 10% of the total revenue the University of Colorado received for these sports alone. Any business making this profit that paid their star workers such a dismal percentage of revenue would be rightfully called exploitative.
Why do Universities through the Mother Ship NCAA perpetuate this system? The most obvious answer, and the most morally repugnant, is that they make more money for other academic activities by not paying their athletes. Universities rightfully point out that they are providing student athletes with an education and, sometimes, a chance to become a professional athlete. Good points, but consider this – most other college scholarships are either based on past student performance (i.e., academic scholarships) or future commitments (i.e., scholarships committing a student to a profession after graduation). College athletic scholarships come with an obligation for the student while at school – entertaining us with outstanding athletic performance, which takes lots of time and makes the University lots of money. So, a student sitting in the library on a work-study job is paid whereas a college athlete spending hours every day preparing for a game is not. The bottom line is that athletes must work hard at their sport, maintain their grades and, if they want pocket money and don’t have parents who can give it to them, either find a job or generous alumni willing to cheat.
Another perspective - in 2010, there were 20 college football coaches making over $2.3M annually. This means that some coaches are compensated more than the total amount of student aid received by all players on their team. Athletic department staff get rich and student athletes need to find a job.
Fixing this problem is easy – the NCAA can just change the college athlete compensation rules to allow players to be given more than their basic college costs. For example, Universities could be allowed to pay twenty football players an additional $20,000 per year and ten more an additional $10,000 for a total cost of $500,000, or about 1-3% of CU’s projected revenue from that sport.
And, any changes should be for all college sports, not just today’s money-makers. As I was channel surfing last week, I came across a broadcast of women’s college volleyball. Allow universities to pay them too, if they so choose.
The current system is neither fair nor smart. It exploits young athletes and breeds corruption. It is not hard to fix. What are we waiting for?
