Research Project Finished

Playing sports is something that many of us are brought up participating in or watching. Whether it’s going down to the park to shoot some hoops or play catch or watching Sports Center on the couch, sports are a huge part of our day to day lives. This invariably transfers, for a lot of people, to playing organized sports at our high schools, and a select few even make it on to college teams. Once you are on the collegiate level, there is a realization that you could become a professional athlete, playing the game you love for a living and also making a ton of money. That is a dream shared by all of the 420000 student athletes that the NCAA currently encompasses. Unfortunately, no more than 2% of athletes in any major sport (except baseball as 11.6%) actually make it to the pro level in the United States. (Manfred) So what about the student athletes? Many of whom have taken up studies in degrees some classify as “bird courses” just so they can spend 40 to 50 hours a week on athletics. Or how about those students that suffer severe injuries and have their scholarships stripped away? Not only are they left with debt from going to these universities, whose scholarships don’t cover all of the cost of tuition, who will be paying for the long lasting medical visits they face in the future stemming from injuries suffered from college athletics? These student athletes need a voice, and they need rights. The NCAA has exploited these students long enough, and it’s time for change. It’s time to unionize and collectively bargain for rights from these universities making millions of dollars on laborers they don’t have to pay or compensate in any other way except an scholarship that they can terminate whenever they please.

Many who oppose the idea of compensating college athletes beyond the scholarships they receive will argue that a free education compensates these athletes more than adequately. But once you research the nature of athletic scholarships a bit, you will soon realize that these students aren’t exactly getting a free ride through a university. For starters, only those students in division I or division II universities can receive athletic scholarships, division III schools and lower cannot. There is also absolutely nothing guaranteeing that your scholarship will be honored by your university for longer than one year. (Peterson’s Staff) If the athlete does nothing detrimental to himself, others or the university, he can still have his scholarship terminated to no fault of his own. Say a team changes coaches and the new one doesn’t want you on his team, scholarship terminated. Or your university needs to cut back on scholarships to save costs (even though college athletics are a virtual money tree) there goes your scholarship. And lastly, and the biggest reason there needs to be reform in college athletics, is injury. If you suffer a substantial injury, the college has every right to not only terminate your scholarship, but also is not legally responsible for covering any medical bills in the short or long term. Essentially, college teams are nothing better than an employer who has full time workers with zero rights, zero job security and zero benefits, something that you don’t see in any other field of business in this nation, but college athletes are exploited to this horrible business practice.

You may be thinking at this point how can a college cover medical bills of all there athletes? It’s not like they have millions upon millions of spending money right? Well, not exactly. Taking a look at one of the biggest colleges in the nation will show you a microcosm of the issue in college athletic spending. Everything is bigger in Texas, and college athletics is no exception. The athletic department brought in $163.3 million in revenue in the school year of 2012-2013, and only had expenses totaling in $138.3 million for the athletic department, leaving a “profit” of $25 million. (Gaines) Because the university is a public school, this extra money does go back into the school in one way shape or form, but it’s definitely not going into helping these student athletes. Perhaps the biggest eye opener in the Texas Longhorns athletic budget and expenses is the discrepancy of how money is spent. In particular, one third of all revenue is spent on coaches’ salaries, while only six percent is spent ion student scholarships. Shortening up the huge gap between these two expenses would greatly help the students receive the kind of compensation they deserve for all they give to these universities.

After the all of these unfair scenarios I’ve laid out for you when it comes to the amount universities are making off of these students, you’d expect someone to step up to the plate and ask for changes right? Well that is exactly what has begun to happen in this past year, as Northwestern University’s football players have won a bid to unionize after a court hearing in Chicago where Judge Ohr wrote in his ruling that the players “fall squarely within the National Labor Relations Act’s broad definition of ’employee’ when one considers the common law definition of ’employee.'” (Bennett)  This could be a potentially huge decision when it comes to college sports, because if they are to successfully unionize and collectively bargain with the NCAA, it could open the door for other universities to do the same. With a strong togetherness between the student athletes nationwide, they will finally be able to receive proper compensation for all of their hard work, and hopefully get a bigger piece of the pie when it comes to the millions upon millions that these colleges make off of their student athletes.

A whole lot of people are mistaking this move to unionize as players desire to become paid athletes. This could not be farther from the truth. The Northwestern football team’s terms that they plan to collectively bargain on have absolutely nothing to do with monetary gain, instead they have to do with insuring college athletes are safer and taken care of by these universities that they give a great deal of their time to. There are ten points of discussion on their website , and they are as follows :  Minimize college athletes’ brain trauma risks, Raise the scholarship amount, Prevent players from being stuck paying sports-related medical expenses, Increase graduation rates, Increase graduation rates, Prohibit universities from using a permanent injury suffered during athletics as a reason to reduce/eliminate a scholarship, Establish and enforce uniform safety guidelines in all sports to help prevent serious injuries and avoidable deaths, Eliminate restrictions on legitimate employment and players ability to directly benefit from commercial opportunities, Prohibit the punishment of college athletes that have not committed a violation, and lastly Guarantee that college athletes are granted an athletic release from their university if they wish to transfer schools.(Kirk) Now, anyone who is not directly  benefiting from the current system in place and anyone with some common sense can tell from these point that there is no desire to be paid shown by these players. Simply wanting the security that any other employee would have in any workplace is not asking much of these money-making universities. Hopefully, Northwestern University is successful with their push to unionize and collectively bargain, and more schools should follow suit. Colleges have benefited from this free labor for long enough, and it’s time to change the system , and get these kids the representation and compensation that they deserve.

Works Cited

Manfred,Tony.Odds College Athletes Become Pro.businessinsider.com. Web. Feb 10. 2012. May 10. 2014.

Petersin’s Staff.Understand Athletic Scholarships.petersons.com. Web. April 10. 2014. May 5. 2014.

Gaines, Cork. How The richest School In The Country Spends Its Money. businessinsider.com. Web. Sep 17. 2013. May 04. 2014.

Bennett, Brian. Northwestern Wildcats Football Team Wins Bid To Unionize. Web. Mar 27. 2014. May 01. 2014.

Kirk, Jason. Not Wanting Pay-For- Play , Want Rights. Web. Jan 28. 2014. May 07. 2014

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