The NCAA is a multi-billion-dollar powerhouse that controls college sports as a whole.  Many of the NCAA employees make millions of dollars, while paying the players who provide the entertainment and draw all the media attention nothing.  They do not even allow the players to advertise themselves or even sell their own jersey. Without these players there would be nothing to watch, or even an NCAA for that matter.  It is not right for the NCAA to make millions of dollars off of free employees.  This would not fly in many other fields of work. This is why I believe that the NCAA needs to begin paying its athletes.

This has been a topic that is often argued about and still is on a daily basis.  Some people believe they will never be paid some just think it wouldn’t work.  In 1906 Alonzo Stagg became the first college sports coach to be paid (University of Chicago).  Prior to that it was not allowed for college coaches to be paid.  So, basically, a century ago the argument was whether to even pay coaches or not, and now we are deciding whether or not to pay these college athletes.  Now a day’s college coaches are paid millions of dollars.  Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh is set to make $9 million in the upcoming football season.  The players he is coaching are making no money at all.  This shows that there is always room for change, for those who think this will never change.  Times are changing and players are working harder and harder, which is turning into more and more revenue for these schools.  These players should have a say in all that goes on, they are left out to dry and forced to practice without being able to put up a fight for themselves and what they believe.  

In 2014 Northwestern football players petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to form a union.  They felt as if they deserved a chance to speak up for all that was wrong. This idea was shot down by the NLRB, they said, “In the decision, the Board held that asserting jurisdiction would not promote labor stability due to the nature and structure of NCAA Division 1 Football Bowl Subdivision(FBS),” A union for the players would allow them to speak up on issues that they have with the NCAA.  Just like any other sports, for example the NFL they have a player’s union that gets together with the owners to make sure there are no problems, and to solve the issues at hand. One of the biggest reasons the NFL is so successful is because they have a union on both sides to make sure the NFL runs as smoothly as possible and everyone has a fair say.  Before a season can even start they must go through many meetings with each other and agree on everything from salary cap to television rights, to even how drug tests work.  In college athletics it does not work that way.  The actual players have no say at all and are just expected to do what they are told without complaining.  The NCAA describes them as student-athletes which exactly means “a participant in an organized sport sponsored by the educational institution in which he or she is enrolled,” (NCAA.org). The one thing to take from this is that it talks about them being students like they are just like all the other kids that only go for school.  If education was valued so much then why would there be games played on weekdays when these “students” should be in class learning and furthering, their education. They are putting on a show for everyone and should be allowed to fight for their own rights and not be told they can’t do something just because they aren’t technically considered an employee.  It is astounding that the players have no say in terms of the money when the NCAA generates billions of dollars per year in revenue.    

The NCAA currently produces nearly $11 billion in annual revenue which is more than the NBA and NHL, which are two leagues that pay their players very well (Hartnett).  This is shocking: how could a league get away with making so much money off of free entertainment?  How is this something that is allowed in any establishment in America?  This also leads to the question of where does the money go?  From my research I found that much of the revenue collected does not go directly back into the classroom (NCAA.org).  Just a small portion of the billions of dollars is going to the classroom.  If they are considered student athletes wouldn’t it make sense that a lot of the money they generate would go back into the classroom for them? It would, however, this is not the case.  The money stays in the hands of a few administrators, athletic directors, and coaches.  This money should have to be distributed in a much different way because it is not going to the right places, it should be going into the classroom when in reality it is going to the people that lead the NCAA.  There are so many restrictions for on how athletes can make money, yet there is almost unlimited power for these select people that run the NCAA.  

College athletes are not allowed to have another job or sell anything that they own, for example a game worn jersey.  According to NCAA bylaw 12.5.2.1, players are forbidden from permitting “the use of his or her name or picture to advertise, recommend or promote directly the sale or use of a commercial product or service of any kind,” (Marshall).   A player even if offered $10,000 for his jersey would have to say no or it would be considered “cheating.”  In 2009 AJ Green, who at the time was a receiver at the University of Georgia was suspended 4 games for selling his jersey for $1,000. It amazes me that the NCAA tells these players that they are not allowed to advertise themselves.  This being because the NCAA uses many of these athletes faces to put on billboards and tickets to make money.    Anyone is allowed to sell anything they own and shouldn’t be able to be stopped because they work for a certain corporation.  Point being, it is not right that the NCAA doesn’t allow these players to make any money.  Every college kid needs money and can find a way to make it by getting a job, other than college athletes.  There is an extreme double standard, if a Music major was to be paid for a T-Shirt no one would make a big deal out of it, or try to get this person suspended.  So why is it such a big deal for someone like AJ Green to do so just to make some extra scratch on the side. 

An argument for not paying these players is that they are not professionals.  However, their coaches are payed just as much as professional athletes which shows the same amount of revenue is made by college and professional sports.  Alabama coach Nick Saban makes just over $6 million a year, while Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy makes the exact same.(ESPN.com) This proves that college and professional coaches are paid around the exact amount of money per year.  So again, this is why I do not agree with the statement that these players shouldn’t be paid just because they aren’t “professionals”.  Nick Saban is not a professional coach, yet is paid like one, so why is it different for players?

An easy argument to this is that college athletes are being compensated by getting a free education.  Many of these players would not be able to afford college without athletics.  The NCAA uses this to justify not paying their athletes.  People who receive academic scholarships also get to go to school for free, but do not have to put it in over 40 hours a week on something other than academics.  These players are even playing without any medical insurance which means that at any time they could be injured and have their scholarship revoked.  

Stanley Doughty was a defensive end for the University of South Carolina in the early 2000s.  He left for the draft one year early and was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs.  When he got to the facility he took a physical where it was discovered that he had a cervical spine injury and just one hit in the wrong place could end his career.  The question must be; how did University of South Carolina not know about this?  Did they just not let him know or just look the other way? Doughty suffered this injury during a 2004 hit against Arian Foster, he was hurt and taken into the locker room where they didn’t take an MRI and told him that he would be okay, so he went and finished the game.  Doughty said “I thought they knew what was good for me.  I listened to ‘em.  I trusted ‘em,” (Walsh). Because of this failure by the University of South Carolina medical team Doughty is now left with no job, no degree, and no insurance.  He also needed a very expensive surgery that he had no money to pay for.  When being recruited by the University of South Carolina they told Doughtys family that they would keep him safe and have his back 100 percent of the time.  This couldn’t be further from the truth and shows that there is some corruption in the NCAA.  People tell people what they want to hear with the goal of making as much money as possible in the back of their mind.     He gave his heart and soul to the school and made the program millions of dollars with his good play for nothing in return except a terrible injury and a surgery that needed to happen that he could not afford.  

In the NCAA when a player is injured there is nothing to stop the athletic director from refusing to pay the medical bills.  Warren Zola says, “there is no doubt there are horror stories out there about schools terminating scholarships, “A player could have a full ride scholarship one day, and the next tear his ACL and have all of that taken away(Zola).”  There needs to be some sort of safety net for these players, and if they get hurt it should not define their life like Doughty they should have something to fall back on so they can be successful in another way, and not just hung out too dry.  

In the last 20 or so years the rate of graduation for student athletes has continued to increase and is currently at 77 percent, (Marot).  However, I believe this is a number that can be greatly improved.  By paying these athletes they would give certain athletes an actual reason to stay and earn their degree.  I agree with the idea by Ken Weaver that says “if you pay them to stay in college, they will get an education.  A condition to being paid is, they have to stay all four years, and maintain their eligibility,” (Weaver).  To me this is a great idea: more players will earn degrees and more athletes will stay in school longer.   This would benefit the NCAA because the play of players would be much better which would attract more fans and generate more revenue.  Rather than many players leaving after one or two seasons because they want to make money, they should do this to incentivize getting a degree.  Mike Lupica says, “so these kids look at it this way: Even if I have to sit on the bench for two years, even three years, I’m still making a million a year, or two million, or three at a time when I would be looking over the shoulder in college every time somebody wants to give me a free meal,” (Lupica).  This shows why there needs to be an incentive to stay in college or else no one will.  Right now athletes do not understand that the money will all come and go but the most important thing that lasts a lifetime is an education.  This needs to be stressed to help out society, and ensure that these athletes are set up with the necessary skills to be successful in life in other ways than sports if that does not work out.   This 77 percent rate of graduation could be greatly improved with this system and also the talent level would be greatly improved which helps the NCAA make more money. 

 Many of these top level college athletes are only able to go to college because of their scholarship, and otherwise would not be able to afford it.  86 percent of college athletes live below the poverty line; this is an astounding number, (Hosick).  Meanwhile the coaches, administrators, and heads of the NCAA live very comfortably above it.  The NCAA thinks that it is okay to just write it off as an easy trade off in saying they pay for them to go to school and receive training.  This is true however in the 2010-2011 school year the average amount of expenses per scholarship was only $3,222.  This means that these players work so hard and live off barely anything, they have no free time or even a way to afford to do anything fun.  The NCAA restricts the value of the scholarship to the school to the point of it being worth much less than the federal poverty line.  If the NCAA allowed access to the fair market in basketball like the pros do, it would be worth about $265,027.  This doesn’t even include endorsement deals or commercials.

The problem with the NCAA and why they have so much power is that for many sports you must play in college to have a chance at the pros.  There are no other places that players can play, so essentially the NCAA has a monopoly.  They can make the rules that they want knowing that the players will not stop trying to play college athletics.  Even before a football player can declare for the draft they must play 3 full seasons.  In what other type of business model is anything like this allowed?  Especially when it is the only option, they essentially must work for the NCAA for at least 3 years and make no money while making them millions.  This is not fair because some players are ready for the pros after 1 or 2 years, however they must stay 3 and risk injury because of a rule.   

It is very clear that there is a big problem in the NCAA and something needs to happen.  This will be a topic that is argued forever no matter where it goes and people have strong opinions going both ways.  But as I look at it, it is not fair to me and doesn’t make sense how the coaches of these players can make millions of dollars when many of these players live well below the poverty level.  These players work over 40 hours a week which is an average work week with no compensation at all.  The players themselves have little to no say at all and aren’t allowed to unionize or get their word out there.  Paying these athletes could do great things like hiring the graduation rate of college athletes from 77%.  These players put their bodies on the line just as much as professionals, however they have no safety blanket like the pros do.  If a player is injured, at any time the athletic director could decide to take the players scholarship away leaving them out too dry.  The NCAA is currently a college sports monopoly that doesn’t pay their players while making millions off of them.  This is something that needs to change, and it must be realized how these players are not getting what they deserve.  They are working long weeks, risking injury, missing school, and are not allowed to make money, yet they still aren’t being paid, this needs to change, and I believe this is something that will change in the upcoming years.  
