National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes deserve to get paid.  Most people would agree with that statement except the NCAA. The NCAA argues that athletes are already paid with their scholarship. In the NCAA opinion, this scholarship is much more valuable than any amount they could make selling their autograph or jersey. Realistically, who can argue that since the majority of these athletes won’t play professionally that education is not more valuable?. But, why can athletes not accept endorsements? This doesn’t cost the NCAA anything and could actually benefit them, it could actually benefit smaller schools, and it could help the players become accustomed to having money and learn to be fiscally responsible with it.  Even the Big Ten commissioner, Val Ackerman, wants athletes to be able to take endorsements. “If Ben Simmons wants to sign with Nike let him. If Lamar Jackson wants to sign an endorsement with Subway let him. It cost the NCAA no money so why not?” (Parrish 1) If even the Big Ten commissioner is for it then the NCAA needs to re-evaluate this policy.

The argument regarding endorsements for athletes is very complicated, and it is difficult to differentiate who is right and who is wrong. It’s easy to say superstar, Johnny Manziel, should have made money in college, but determining how much money to give a star athlete in a high publicity sport versus a low-level player in a less popular sport is quite difficult to determine. When most people say that college athletes should be paid they mean big-time athletes like Jadeveon Clowney, Tim Tebow, and Todd Gurley. These are the athletes who should be able to receive endorsements. They are superstars, and the NCAA makes huge amounts of money selling their merchandise of which the athletes receive nothing. But if these players could take endorsements, both sides would benefit. 

Allowing college athletes to accept endorsements doesn’t cost the NCAA anything.  In fact, it could benefit them.  They could charge a percentage of each player’s endorsement fee and use that money to make more scholarships available to all athletes.  They could also mandate that the NCAA be credited as well as each athlete’s school in any commercial, billboard, etc.  letting athletes accept endorsements would give them more exposure or publicity. As Forbes reporter Kristi Dosh writes, “bottom line without College football half the sports that NCAA has could not get funding.”  Most college programs pay for the other sports off of the proceeds from their football and basketball teams. Why wouldn’t the NCAA want to help these players make their schools more money so that the less popular sports could be better funded and even expanded? For example, when Robert Griffin III graduated from Baylor “he earned more money than any other NFL rookie between his graduation to his first regular season game.” (The Oracle) That shows the incredible demand for college stars.  It is understandable why the NCAA doesn’t want to pay its athletes because that erupts too many problems especially on how to decide how much to pay  each player. Endorsements on the other hand, solve this problem.  “It makes it where both sides can win” says Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman in her interview to CBS sports. Not only does it profit both sides, but scandals like Johnny Manziel selling his autograph would have never happened if he had just been able to accept endorsement deals. 

The other main reason why some are against college athletes being able to sign endorsements as according to and sports reporter Zach Barnett, “Allowing teenagers to sign endorsements would turn every recruitment into a bidding war where the richest school wins.” (Barnett 1) This sounds like a legitimate argument.  Would power schools be able to get the best recruits? Alabama and Clemson would be power houses for football and get all the big-time recruits.  Likewise, Duke and Kentucky would be basketball power houses.  Letting athletes accept endorsements wouldn’t be fair because other teams couldn’t compete. That might sound like a reasonable concern but news flash that’s how it already is. Nick Saban, head coach of Alabama, has gotten the number one recruiting class eight years in a row according to ESPN. John Calipari has had the number one recruiting class for the past two years in a row interchanging with another power house school Duke. Powerhouses already get the best recruits.  . If anything, this would benefit recruiters of smaller schools as it opens up the free market enterprise of recruits.  Big-time recruits would never consider smaller schools, but now, if these coaches can get a booster to offer a nice enough endorsement, the team could actually sign a big-time recruit.  It gives Northwestern a chance to sign a big-time recruit like Jayson Tatum who would have never batted an eye at their university otherwise.  This would also help these smaller schools build their programs with the publicity of a top-notch recruit.  Will powerhouses still get the best recruits most of the time? There will always be powerhouses in sports, but now, any team could have an actual shot at signing virtually any recruit. 

The Oracle did an article about the pros and cons of athletes being able to accept endorsements.  Roy Shadmon, the author, writes:

It would also not be the smartest thing to give an 18-year-old student-athlete thousands of dollars through endorsements because at that age most players don’t have the maturity to be responsible with large sums of money. For example, if the Oregon football players have a problem with marijuana and if many athletes are given money without supervision then it will result in athletes buying drugs (Shadmon 2). 

. Most student-athletes aren’t mature enough to use money wisely. They will blow some of it on irresponsible maybe even illegal things. But most of these athletes will do that when they get into the pros in a few years with a much larger amount. To help remedy this, athletes should be required to take a basic finance class which would include budgeting, the power of investing, and the importance of saving.  This would help them not just go out and bthrough their money.  According to a 2009 Sports Illustrated article, “78% of NFL players are bankrupt or are financially struggling within two years of retirement and an estimated 60% of NBA players go bankrupt within five years after leaving their sport.” (Sports Illustrated 33) Why are these athletes broke? It could be because they only got one contract or because they never signed any extensions. Maybe they weren’t good enough in the pros to sign endorsements or they blew through their money without any thought of their future.  But if these athletes were given a big check in college from a Subway commercial, for example, coupled with a finance class, they would be less likely to blow it all.  This would help prepare them for the outrageous amount of money made in professional sports. Life’s greatest teacher is by far experience.  These athletes would then have some experience with money and know how to handle it better.  How can one expect someone at the age of twenty-one to twenty-two and now even younger to know how to responsibly manage all that money? They had to leave college to get to the professional league so they could finally make money. Financial management isn’t that high of a priority when the state of your finances is whatever you have in your wallet or possibly find in your pants pocket. It would be asinine to give an eighteen-year-old a million dollars and expect him to be financially responsible with it. Most college students are just now getting in debt for college and have not a dollar to their name. If these talented athletes could get endorsements, they would get a little taste of this before the huge deals came and would be much more prepared for it. 

It’s almost as if the NCAA wants more than half of their great athletes to fail. Luckily for athletes, the rules might soon be changing due to Lavar Ball and his youngest son LaMelo Ball. “LaMelo Ball is arguably the most popular high school basketball player compared only to LeBron James himself” , NY Post reporter Corey Massiak says. People are lining up to see this 16 year old phenomenon. Just this past summer LaMelo and his Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team coached by his dad Lavar had the Adidas Rising Start Tournament sold out. LeBron James couldn’t even attend. This was due to LeBron’s late arrival and the arena being so packed already officials feared a riot if LeBron were to enter. As one of the security guards reported “The place was packed, multiple NBA stars were already in the building, then LeBron shows up and we have to tell him no he can’t come the arena is too packed”. But this just goes to show how much attention is around LaMelo Ball. LaMelo however, recently dropped a signature shoe for $395 and became the first high school player to ever do so. This is starting to cause concerns since LaMelo is expected to play for UCLA.  As Scout reporter Roy Shepard reports “LaMelo has been committed to UCLA since his sophomore year of high school”. Many fear that if the rules in the NCAA do not change, he will be ineligible. Because, as of right now, no NCAA player is allowed to accept endorsements due to NCAA rules.  That obviously has never been a rule in high school as no one has ever had this much attention before. this creates a real problem for the NCAA, how can you tell someone they can’t play basketball because they have their own signature shoe making LaMelo and estimate of almost a million a year according to Lavar Ball in one of his many recent interviews. The NCAA has never faced an issue like this. It’s easy to say no college players can get signature shoes while they are playing for a university but what about someone who already has one and not just that but a successful one. This won’t unfold for another year as LaMelo must finish his senior year, but it might be the first real possible threat to the NCAA’s rule. Also, LaMelo has his dad Lavar Ball who may not know when to shut up about how great his sons are but he does draw a crowd.  In this instance, he could actually have the majority of people on his side. Having Lavar Ball and the people backing him is scary at least to anyone that comes between him and his boys playing ball. 

Even though Lavar ball and his son LaMelo might be the only way to get this rule change for a while the NCAA could take steps to allowing it. Starting by giving small endorsements to star athlete. The amount decided by the NCAA but anything to these athletes is better than nothing. The NCAA could even take a portion of all endorsements from these athletes if they felt so compelled to do so. If the NCAA doesn’t want there athletes to get paid like professional athletes these are a few little steps they could do to make the athlete and the NCAA both happy.

College athletes receiving endorsements is something that needs to happen. It is basically stealing from the athlete if the NCAA doesn’t allow endorsements. The argument for why they can’t personally pay athletes is fair and make sense. But under no circumstance does it make sense for athletes to not be able to accept endorsements. It costs the NCAA no money at all and if anything, makes them more money. This money could be used to make more scholarships available and fund less popular sports which benefits everyone in all schools. It relieves the NCAA of any responsibility if an athlete has money or not. It is up to individual companies to decide to whom to offer endorsement money. So even a golfer or volleyball player can get an endorsement if they are good enough and marketable.  Lastly, it will better prepare athletes for their new-found fame and fortune and teach them financial responsibility so that they reap the benefits even after their playing time is over.  It is time for the NCAA to re-evaluate their policy.  If handled properly, it could benefit everyone.  
