A group of university professors has announced the formation of a coalition to fight for the labor rights of college men’s basketball and football players.
Its members insist these college athletes should be treated as employees, and get paid as such, because of the central role they play in generating revenue for the NCAA.
Though we agree those who labor should have people on their side fighting for them, the Editorial Board disagrees with the notion that student-athletes are employees and that they should get paid for participating in ?college sports.
College is about getting an education. It’s easy to forget about this undisputable truth, especially during the month of March.
We realize these student-athletes put in an outrageous amount of work for the sheer entertainment of the masses. We also realize they bring in an outrageous amount of money for the NCAA: in 2014 alone, the NCAA ?reported revenue of just under $1 billion.
But, we must not hesitate to mention that most student-athletes actually do receive some kind of compensation — namely, a college education.
According to the NCAA, Division I and II schools provide more than $2 billion in athletics scholarships annually to more than 126,000 student-athletes.
That’s a lot of money. Many college students are awarded nothing in scholarship money. Others receive only modest aid and are forced to find other means with which to further their education. This often includes part-time employment.
However, not all student-athletes receive full-ride scholarships. That doesn’t mean they are allowed to take it easy when it comes to their sport.
Rigorous practice schedules combined with frequent travel makes it hard enough to keep up on one’s studies, let alone part-time jobs. During the season, the student-athlete’s sport is his or her entire life.
With this in mind, maybe one can make a case for paying players a modest stipend. And, let’s not forget full-ride scholarships don’t account for ?living expenses.
What about the player that comes from a lower-class background, whose parents cannot afford to pay for his or her groceries or for a computer or for basic school supplies?
His or her full ride cannot provide ?these things.
Of course, we cannot deny that student-athletes don’t receive special treatment just because they are athletes. This special treatment often extends beyond mere bragging rights and deadline extensions.
But it’s obvious that deadline extensions do not equate to a salary. So maybe we can come up with a sort of solution.
Why not pay players in the same way many non-athlete students are paid as a part of work-study?
Players can work during the off-season for their university and receive a stipend for the work they do. This doesn’t give them any advantage over other students but ensures that they have enough money to survive and maybe even have a little fun in the meantime.
We greatly admire what student-athletes do for our universities. They provide entertainment and give us non-athletes something to root for. But they are not employees.
They are students who just happen to be very skilled at a particular sport. They deserve recognition and praise and maybe even a little celebrity, but not ?a salary.
