Should college athletes get paid?

Well, there’s “getting paid,” and then there’s “GETTING PAID!”

According to Alan Binder of The New York Times, “N.C.A.A. Athletes Could Be Paid Under a New California Law.  Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to allow college athletes to hire agents and make money from endorsements.”

This is the “getting paid” scenario…, not the “GETTING PAID” scenario.

“The measure, the first of its kind, threatens the business model of college sports.”

Translated…, this means that colleges are worried because they may have to stop taking advantage of these young athletes and actually operate like the businesses they are.

Under the new California law, college athletes, said more correctly, would be “allowed to earn money from endorsements…,” they would not be “getting paid” for their athletic services to the given college.

So all of this “wringing of hands” is just over allowing the students to make their own money on the side.

This interpretation of “getting paid” should be a no-brainer.  This is The United States of America after all.  This is a capitalist economy.  People should not be hindered from making money (legally) if they have the opportunity to do so.

This whole concept of “amateurism” should be done away with in my opinion.

We’ve already ditched “amateurism” as far as the Olympics is concerned.  Have our Olympic teams fallen apart?  Or does it just seem like business as usual?

I would argue that nobody cares.

“It has been a bedrock principle behind college sports: Student-athletes should not be paid beyond the costs of attending a university.”

Well my friends…, it’s long overdue that this “bedrock principle behind college sports” be “put to bed.”

The current system looks more like the college institutions are the plantations and the student athletes are the indentured servants.

The students are getting some level of reciprocation (scholarships), but the whole situation is VERY much in the “plantation owners’” favor.

“The new law, which is supposed to take effect in 2023 [and in California only], attacks the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s long-held philosophy that college athletes should earn a degree, not money, for playing sports. That view, also under assault in several other states and on Capitol Hill, has held up even as the college sports industry swelled into a behemoth that generated at least $14 billion last year, and as athletes faced mounting demands on their bodies and schedules.”

A $14 BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY!

I would argue that figure is quite conservative as well.

Universities across the country already get many “considerations” as far as making money is concerned.  Please see my blog from November 16, 2017, “Colleges are ‘majoring’ in making money.”

“Every single student in the university can market their name, image and likeness; they can go and get a YouTube channel, and they can monetize that. The only group that can’t are athletes. Why is that?”

“The N.C.A.A., which has been studying the possibility of rewriting its rules on endorsements, has called the measure [the proposed law in California] “unconstitutional” and said without elaboration on Monday that it would “consider next steps in California.”

Look who’s calling who’s practices “unconstitutional!”

Is the NCAA serious?!

I don’t like throwing the “R” word around, but the NCAA’s practices could definitely be seen as racist in nature, seeing that an overwhelming percentage of marketable college athletes are African-American.

‘“People are just so aware of the fact that you’ve got a multi-billion-dollar industry that — let’s set aside scholarships — basically denies compensation to the very talent, the very work that produces that revenue,’ said Senator Nancy Skinner, a Democrat, who wrote the legislation. ‘Students who love their sport and are committed to continuing their sport in college are handicapped in so many ways, and it’s all due to N.C.A.A. rules.’”

“People said, ‘You know what, we’ve got to force their hands,’ said Gov. Newsom, who was once a regent for some of California’s largest public universities. “They’re not going to do the right thing on their own. They only do the right thing when they’re sued or they’re forced to do the right thing.”

“Only a fraction of college athletes eventually turn professional, and for the rest, ‘college is the only time they have to profit off their hard-earned athletic successes,’ Hayley Hodson, a former Stanford volleyball player, said during legislative testimony in July.”

I wholeheartedly agree with Ms. Hodson.  College athletes are forced to make many sacrifices and, in many cases, suffer through serious and devastating physical injuries for the “good of team,” which really means for the good of the university’s bank account!

Madisen Martinez, on the CollegeXpress.com website, says, “Being a college student-athlete is a full-time job, bouncing between the weight room, the court/field, classes, and film sessions. College athletics are extracurricular activities, but the schedules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) tournaments require an extended period in which the student-athletes must miss school. Not only do they miss class, but they are absent for nationally televised games that make a lot of money and receive millions of viewers, according to Marc Edelman in his article ‘21 Reasons Why Student-Athletes Are Employees and Should Be Allowed to Unionize.’”

Obviously these colleges are more concerned with their streams of revenue as opposed to the education their “students” are receiving.

‘“Most profits from college athletics do not go toward academics,’ reports Edelman.”

The profits go towards making more profits.

Like bigger and better football stadiums, seating 70,000, 80,000, 90,000, and even 100,000 fans and more.

Like bigger and better “state of the art” basketball arenas, and bigger and better “state of the art” training facilities.

And let’s not forget the multi-million dollar contracts for the high profile coaches of these “programs.”

Let’s not fool ourselves…, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY…, just like it always is.

 

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