Despite the rhetoric about education, the institutions place more importance on athletes’ athletic contributions than developing them as scholars for a professional world outside of sports.
“I know that it’s more valuable to my school that I get a C on an exam and an interception on Saturday, than it was that I get straight A’s and get no interceptions on Saturday,” former University of Maryland football player Domonique Foxworth said.
Maybe the term athlete-student would be more accurate.
Crazy story about the origin of the term: student-athlete. Not surprisingly, it has nothing to do with motivating students to be excited about their education. The term student-athlete was invented in the 1950s when colleges were scrambling for a way out of having legal obligations to athletes who got injured on the field. After a slew of workers’ compensation lawsuits, one law firm advised an institution to fall back on the lingo of amateurism to avoid liability for medical costs. The logic was that students were not injured due to their primary reason for being at the college—being a student—rather, they only incurred injury participating in an extra curricular activity.
It didn’t take long for the term to be adopted for a different purpose—in this case, to avoid compensating students for their athletic labor.
Withholding pay from college athletes is contrary to the treatment other students on campus receive. As evidence shows, students are paid to work all the time, teaching assistants, for example. An English student who writes a book isn’t barred from profiting from that book because s/he is an amateur writer. Suppose universities had “amateurism” for all students and no students could be compensated for working while in college?
Amateurism proponents tout certain intangibles that are bestowed upon college athletes, such as an immense sense of school pride and team spirit, in addition to that invaluable, priceless education. Actually, education has a price, which includes tuition, fees, room, board, and books. That price, however, is a drop in the bucket compared to how much schools and the NCAA earn off of athletes in key sports at Division I schools.
Also, missing from scholarships are living expenses for grocery shopping and other needs. Other students can get jobs to make up the difference. But a schedule like Jonathan Franklin’s leaves no time to work for extra money.
Arian Foster, a former football player at the University of Tennessee, expressed this very grievance: “Why don’t I have anything to show for what I just did?” He once told his coach, who drives a Lexus: “Either you give us some food, or I’m gonna go and do something stupid. I’m hungry.” His coach brought over 50 tacos for him and some of his teammates. Foster confessed that a lot of guys on his team sold their championship rings to meet their basic needs.
Rather than admit they are committing highway robbery, opponents of paying college athletes like Harvey Perlman, Chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln argue: “That’s the deal. If you don’t like the deal, then do something else. It’s just that simple.”
That’s one thing we can agree on. The issue is simple. But it has nothing to do with amateurism. There’s nothing amateur about college players. As one player pointed out, the players have far more training in sports than many so-called professionals do on their first day on the job.
The issue has everything to do with “sheer economic purpose”: money and profits and popularity. Without these athletes, the NCAA is nothing, or as Foster said: “If there’s no players, there’s no March Madness, there’s no brackets, there’s no bowl games. There’s no none of that.”
For money and profits and popularity, the NCAA Cartel has orchestrated the road to the pros through its gates. Only 3 athletes since 2006 have been drafted straight from high school without going to college. Thus, even one-year-and-done sensations like Carmelo Anthony (Syracuse, basketball) and most recently Jameis Winston (Florida State, football) will always be linked to some college team. Should they continue to be sensations in the pros, these NCAA cash cows will continue to produce their milk.
“It’s a brilliantly devised evil scheme to keep kids quiet,” says Arian Foster. Say anything, speak against the cartel, and it will jeopardize your chances of getting to the next level. Don’t say anything and the problem persists. “The NCAA has full control of your eligibility.”
Athletes and their allies have begun the fight against this code of so-called amateurism. In a twist of irony, Sonny Vaccaro, the marketing genius behind linking sporting apparel companies to colleges and universities, has now left the very occupation which made him millions, to side with athletes.
Conveniently, no one currently working at the NCAA spoke in the documentary, which shows just how tight of a cartel athletes will have to fight in order to gain basic social justice rights to be paid adequately for their labor.
Foster said, “It’s funny, I looked up the definition of indentured servant and it’s exactly what a student athlete is. You get food, you get accommodations, and you get training, but you don’t get pay. That’s exactly what it is.”
Although college athletes are currently denied the right of representation and to seek compensation for their services, they should be paid not just for playing sports, but for every appearance in television and on video games, for having their names on jerseys that are sold by the thousands to fans, for taking pictures, signing autographs, and doing commercials for schools and for the NCAA. (And for anything that was left out in that previous sentence.)
They must also be present at the table to address these issues when they are discussed. For the Olympics, a minimum of 20 percent athletes are part of the governing body. A similar, if not greater, proportion of college athletes need to be present to reach fair and just decisions concerning remuneration for their labor.
The athletes, journalists, and the documentarians make a compelling case and one that can no longer be dismissed. The time has come for student athletes to receive their dues.
Foster said, “It’s about getting your fair share based on what you put in.”
Directors: Ross Finkel, Trevor Martin, Jonathan Paley
Runtime: 85 minutes
