This past summer, there was a court ruling by the US Ninth Circuit court of Appeals for the Ed O'Bannon case where the NCAA used his likeness for a video game and did not compensate him for efforts. The NCAA was ordered to pay $46 million in lawsuit vs O'Bannon where the NCAA was found to be in violation of the U.S. antitrust laws for the use of O'Bannon's image in video games and other broadcasts. This is a major step in the right direction for college athletes.
Johnny Manziel, and the media attention that he captured, brought Texas A&M $150,000 in #2 replica jersey's alone with $120 million in total revenue for the 2012 season. Manziel was not compensated at all. Meanwhile, his coach, Kevin Sumlin got a $1.1 million raise. How are these men like Johnny Manziel and Colt McCoy not paid anything, when the people they are playing for are making millions of dollars? NCAA and the schools that the athletes pay for it justify it by "paying them with an education." That's like enslaving someone to work on your farm but saying it's fine because you're teaching them to read and write.
While we are most certainly headed in the right direction, it's cases like O'Bannon's that are going to force us to keep looking into compensating these players for their time and effort into the sports that our state colleges are making so much money on.
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Considering the average student loan debt college graduates must heave along with them at the start of their careers is $26,250 in Texas, I would say that a full-ride scholarship for student athletes is adequate compensation. According to the New York Times, "the cost of attendance, typically several thousand dollars more than a traditional scholarship, accounts for the financial demands of additional activities like traveling home and back and paying cell phone bills." So college athletes receive a free education, are compensated for their basic needs, and gain the recognition that may later allow them to join professional sports teams to make nauseating salaries.
Lifting the Bar's "Pumped up & pimped out" likens this compensation, which multitudes of college-bound hopefuls salivate over, to "... enslaving some one to work on your farm but saying it's fine because you're teaching them to read and write." He suggests that athletes receive paychecks from their colleges, like professional athletes, for participating.
Corruption already abounds in, for example, college football. An endless list of coaches will continue to face scandal for bribing players, yet players should be paid? What about the love for the sport? Should all players be compensated equally? What happens when the cross country team unionizes and demands the same pay as the football team, even though the football team generates the most revenue for the school?
Let's step back to the basic definition of extracurricular: (of an activity at a school or college) pursued in addition to the normal course of study. Chess club. Student government. Football- all unpaid positions that should remain so. Let us not forget in our crazed football and basketball season fervor that college sports exist because college exists- as a place for higher education and a jumping off point for all students to start their careers. Just as any engineering student must do his time before making a cozy salary, so should any college athlete.
Sources:
The Institute for College Access and Success
Court Strikes Down Payments to College Athletes
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