Why it Sucks to be a College Athlete
The average professional basketball player earns $5.15 Million per year but the average division 1 college basketball player earns $0. Regarding baseball, the average pro earns $3.2 Million while again, college athletes never receive anything. There are many reasons the NCAA would explain as to why this is. For one, professional athletes are paid because they are a form of entertainment. People pay to see them play, businesses pay to have their commercials shown during games, fans buy their merchandise, and of course professional athletes are very talented, and work very hard at what they do. But wait, don’t college athletes do all those same things? They constantly work to get better in order to represent their school, and I know CBS and Forbes broadcasting made over $1 Billion from March Madness alone. This is not to mention the money the athletes’ schools get from their playing. While yes, it is important that college athletes are not spoiled rich from competing in their sport, it is still necessary for them to start getting paid for their hard work each and every day.
It is easy to make the argument that in a way these athletes are being paid. They are being given a college education at no cost (assuming they’ve earned a full scholarship). For many athletes, sports is the only way their family will be able to send them to college. For others, they do not earn the grades in High School to be able to go to college without sports. The one problem to this argument is that these Division 1 athletes aren’t actually getting an education. Athletes are so busy working to get better at their sport, or traveling because of their sport, that they constantly miss class and are behind. NCAA did a survey in 2011, and even in the off-season “a large majority say they spend as much or more time on sports.” With this said, the NCAA still has a baseline GPA an athlete must have in order to stay eligible for their sport. There is rarely talk of an athlete not being able to meet this requirement, so there must be some learning going on. Here is where the colleges really cheat. In order to keep their athletes eligible, colleges will place them in irrelevant courses such as Swahili. UNC was caught doing this. By putting their athletes in a Swahili course where nothing is taught, and the class is an easy A, UNC is admitting that they care more about their athletic reputation than their academic reputation. These colleges are simply setting their athletes up to fail later in life.
One might ask why college athletes even need an education when they can just go pro. Only 2% of college athletes continue on the professional level. For the 98% that do not make it, they are doomed without a real college education. Furthermore, the athlete can’t be blamed for this lack of an education. They came to college fully intending to get an education, but they want to work hard on their sport to represent their school well. In fact they help their school out more than just by bettering their athletic reputation. These athletes help to make money for their colleges. In 2012, the University of Texas’ football program generated over $95 Million. With colleges making so much money from their athletes, you would expect the athletes to get some money in return. Instead the colleges focus on giving money to the coaching staff, as well as updating facilities. So now it is becoming clearer and clearer that the NCAA and Colleges are using athletes to earn money, and not repaying them in any way.
With an increase in media, has come an increase in this unfair use of college athletes. Baseball Joe at Yale by Lester Chadwick details the life of a baseball player at Yale in 1913. A lack of media showing college sports is just one of many differences between those times for college athletics, and now. Another difference is the use of scholarships. There weren’t scholarships that were given out in 1913, which means everybody has a fair chance of making the team by having to try out. College sports were also less important at the time. The school would not gain much money from college athletics which in turn meant they didn’t have an incentive to put athletes in easy classes where they will temporarily succeed, but in the long run fail. The conclusion that can be made here is that if college athletics weren’t as big of a deal as they are regarded, then the NCAA would stop taking advantage of athletes, and for once in a very long time, school would come before sports.
There is no reason why the NCAA should be allowed to exploit athletes. In 2013 before the NCAA March Madness championship game, Shabazz Napier (star player for UCONN) talked about how some nights he goes to sleep starving. Despite this lack of money for food, everybody expects him to play at a high level. At that championship game, about 79,000 people attended, paying an average of $500 per ticket. This amounts in $39.5 Million dollars with none of it going to the players. It’s no wonder why so many of these players don’t do well in school. With practice, weight training and sometimes a lack of food, athletes must be way too exhausted to fulfill the “student” half of their life. When these athletes are caught receiving money, or special treatment, they are drawn out and ridiculed for what they’ve done. Really they are just accepting what they already deserve: help.
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