Behind the NCAA
Every day thousands of so called “student athletes” attend practice for sports across America. Of these students, some will receive scholarships that allow them to receive schooling and a chance to display their abilities in return for their efforts presented on field or on court. At the head of these sports lies the NCAA (Nation Collegiate Athletic Association) which has control on eligibility of students and rules and regulations of almost every college sport (National Collegiate Athletic Association). Over twelve hundred colleges and universities have united as members of the NCAA (NCAA College Athletics Statistics). While the majority of the sports are played simply for the love of the game, Basketball and Football generate massive profits every year for institutions and the NCAA. Generating these profits are the student athletes who are forbidden to take their fair share due to how amateurism is currently defined.
The current structure for the NCAA was developed by a man named Walter Byers who is essentially the founder of the association. He is also the sole founder of the current interpretation of the words “student athlete” and amateur (Schooled: The Price of College Sports). He developed the term student athlete to imply that those who are given scholarships to play sports are first students, and then athletes. What this means is that colleges and universities are able to easily dismiss any claims of workman compensation that injured student athletes attempt to claim as they are not officially employees of the school. They are capable of not taking responsibility of the students for playing a dangerous, reckless game that generates billions of dollars every year. Evidently, something needs to change. - Peter Williamson |
The Cartel of Collegiate Sports
College sports generate money for schools. Lots of money. In fact in 2013 alone schools across the country raked in over 500 million dollars from football games. The NCAA alone had 71 million is surplus revenue (Dauster). However, no player will see a cent past their scholarships (estimated on average at $37,500 per year) from any of these entities. These schools have managed to accomplish what would ordinarily seem to preposterous in any other context in America; Colleges, universities, and most importantly the NCAA have created a structure in which players are paid well below their fair market value. They have accomplished this feat through several means (Schooled: The Price of College Sports). To compete in professional football or basketball, players must first compete at the collegiate level. Additionally, through the enforcement of the concept of a “student athlete,” students cannot receive any benefits one would expect to while working.
Players are trapped in a system that gives them no alternative, and no compensation. In 2012, an analysis of profits of various public institutions due to college football was done. It was found that if players were paid a fair market value (in correlation with the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement,) players at Texas State would receive over five hundred thousand dollars per player per year (Rickman). However, these players are paid less than seven percent (in form of a scholarship) of what the market would pay them in normal circumstances. This is only made possible by the cartel formed between all of the colleges and universities in the United States and the NCAA. Cartels are illegal in the U.S. under various anti-trust laws made during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In economics, a cartel is “a collection of businesses or countries that act together as a single producer and agree to influence prices for certain goods and services by controlling production and marketing” (Investopedia). When looking at how college students are treated, it is evident that an effort to keep the cost of labor at a minimum is under effect. Institutions are able to acquire labor from these students at an incredibly reduced rate. This is because players are incapable of finding competition in offers of pay as, collectively, colleges and universities have agreed not to pay players under rules and regulations set by the NCAA. In essence, the NCAA is committing a crime similar to OPEC’s fixing of oil prices that instead affects the lives of their ‘student athletes’. Whether students should be paid or not for their efforts cannot be argued both ways. The NCAA has created a system that removes all fairness of a market from these players. To rally against this unjust market, Northwestern has sought to unionize as employees of the school. Under this unionization they will possibly be able to receive healthcare benefits and workman compensation. All in all, something is due for their efforts, and by ignoring them a cartel known as the NCAA is allowed to run freely affecting the lives of thousands. - Peter Williamson |