should College Athletes Get Paid?

coming Christmas 2012

This editorial is part of our GREAT DEBATE feature 'Should College Athletes Get Paid?' An NCAA study revealed that college athletes spend about 40 hours per week just playing their sport. In return, college athletes receive payment in the form of a scholarship worth tens of thousands of dollars, a portion of which the IRS taxes as income. Athletes who fail to participate in mandatory practices or games have their scholarships terminated. So college athletes are already paid to play. So why all the fuss over this topic? Example of a typical working college student: 30 hours a week Practice / Video x minimum wage (7.25) plus $2 (9.25) plus game day time (3 hours) equals 305.25 a week (or $1221 a month) More on this subject from a previous article, click here!

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Walter Byers, who served as NCAA President for over 35 years, confessed in his book that the NCAA sought to convince the public that such payments were not actually payments so that its member colleges could avoid paying workers compensation.   The NCAA literally invented the word “student-athlete,” referred to payments as scholarships, and hired publicists to promote its propaganda to ensure the ability of its membership to maximize profits. To have an honest discussion, we first need to realize that the NCAA and its colleges have no problem paying players. They’ve done so for almost 60 years. The real issue is that the NCAA and its colleges don’t want to increase payments to college athletes. The real question is whether or not some or all college athletes should be paid more. College athletes will be the first to tell you how fortunate they are to have their opportunities. The vast majority of Division I athletes do not have the grounds to call for an increase in pay because their teams generate little revenue compared to the expenses necessary for their teams to exist. However, NCAA rules leave 85 percent of these players living below the federal poverty line. All of the men’s basketball players that played in this year’s Final Four live below the federal poverty line, but had an average fair market value of $846,172 per player in 2009-10. Still, some will argue that schools can’t possibly afford to give traditional salaries to players because most programs lose money. This is generally true among non-FBS schools. They fail to point out that the average net profits for FBS football and men’s basketball programs are $9.5 million and $2.5 million, respectively. In addition, FBS schools are receiving about $800 million in new revenue from recent TV deals. The truth is that most FBS athletic programs don’t have a revenue problem, they have a spending problem. FBS programs spend about $6.3 million per year more on non-revenue sports than other Division I schools. This means that FBS schools could spend $6.3 million per year less on these sports and still fully compete in Division I. Fiscal responsibility alone would enable the average FBS college to pay their football and men’s basketball players a salary in addition to their scholarship. For those who worry that providing actual salaries for football and men’s basketball players would hurt other sports, they should take a close look at non-FBS colleges in Division I and Division II. The majority of these football and basketball teams lose money, yet other sports flourish at these colleges. Athletes outside of football and men’s basketball still receive athletic scholarships, coaches are still hired, teams play full seasons, travel, and participate in post-season championships. Others argue that Title IX would prevent schools from providing salaries to football and men’s basketball players. However, Title IX author and former Ivy League President Jeff Orleans has gone on record saying Title IX would not apply to football and men’s basketball programs that paid their players a salary because these programs would be considered unrelated business activities over which Title IX does not have jurisdiction. DID YOU KNOW: the NCAA does not mandate that colleges pay for any sports-related medical expenses —it’s optional. This arrangement too often leaves players stuck with sports-related medical bills. Permanently injured players can have their scholarships taken away. The NCPA is advocating for increased “payments” to players in the form of continuing education to increase graduation rates, coverage for sports-related medical expenses, the elimination of the scholarship shortfall, and the continuation of scholarships for athletes who are removed from their teams while in good academic and disciplinary standing. Let's Compensate College Athletes By Making Sure They Graduate Power-conference schools schedule more FCS foes We are in the middle of the college football season, but it's never too late to start obsessing over it, so let's begin the analysis by breaking down 2012 schedules. See Yahoo! Sports for a breakdown...

FACTS Paying athletes is a topic that won't go away because there is seemingly so much money to be had. Consider: • At least 68 of 119 Division I football coaches have contracts for at least $1 million, according to coacheshotseat.com. Seven coaches in the SEC, including Georgia's Mark Richt, make at least $2 million. Seven in the ACC, including Tech's Paul Johnson, make at least $1.5 million. To compare, only five coaches in the nation earned as much as $1 million in 1999, according to USA Today. • CBS is paying the NCAA $6 billion over 11 years to televise its three-week postseason basketball tournament. • On April 22, 2010, a monumental 14 year 10.8 billion dollar agreement was reached with Turner to receive joint broadcast rights along with CBS for the NCAA 'March Madness' college basketball tournament. • The Big Ten and Mountain West conferences have launched their own TV networks, which are projected to generate millions of dollars. • Texas and ESPN inked a deal worth $300 million. Texas would receive $247.5 million of the guarantee by ESPN with the rest going to IMG College, a company that provides marketing and licensing services for the university. The school could also receive more money based on the amount of profit from the network, which is set to begin airing this fall. The revenue is in addition to the expected $14 to $15 million Texas is expected to receive from the Big 12 • Nike and Reebok, among others, negotiate million-dollar deals with colleges for the players to wear their apparel. Georgia receives $1.3 million a year from Nike, as part of a 10-year deal signed in 1999. Tech has deals with various companies, depending upon the sport. In 2006, those deals were worth about $325,000. Tech will announce a new deal with Russell in August that will cover most of its teams, according to assistant athletics director Dean Buchan • Bowl payouts - click here • Final Four payouts More on this subject from a previous article, click here!

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