Just imagine this. You are the face of your company. You and a few others drive most of the revenue and the company even uses you for advertising and promoting in the media. Your face is everywhere. Outsiders come to see you because you are so good at what you do. People across the country know your name and may have even heard of your company only because of the talent that you possess. Ten's of millions of dollars are made because of you and your collegues, but there is one catch..........YOU DON'T GET PAID FOR IT!
What I just described is the reality of our major college athletes of the past and present. Mainly college football would be the place where this situation is reality. The money that is made by the schools and athletic staff is astounding and keeps growing as the years go by with all of the new endorsements and partnerships that the schools and the NCAA come across. But the kids that are spending so much time training and playing and risking their bodies don't see a piece of that pie at all and then we wonder why we find so many kids willing to take money illegally through multiple sources. I want to take a look at this challenge that the world of major college sports faces and see what changes if any can be made.
The first thing we want to look at is the schools. Now many have described the way that the kids are "used" on the university level is like modern day slavery. The schools promote and market them just as the NFL would market its teams and atheletes. Jerseys are sold (without the name on the back), posters (sometimes billboards) are posted, and video games sold (again without the names just the numbers of the players) all with the players who bring this interest to these items gaining absolutely nothing. Now I wouldn't compare it to slavery as we know it but if you take the emotion out of thinking of the slave trade in america and just look at the facts, the word does somewhat apply. Now all of the people that are not considered "ametures" (ie. the coaches, university presidents, staff, etc.) all benefit from this added attention and spotlight on the university but once again the players get nada! In football in particular, the university gets a certain amount of money (many time in the millions) just for going to a bowl game! Another instance when the players are to be happy for scholorship money and memories.
Now there are many situations when the player or the players family feel that the rules arent fair and they find a way to get paid, or a way to get paid finds them. In the begining when being recruited from high school, this gets done by the universities that are fighting to have this amazing athelete help their program win (and make a fortune). So they offer the player and his family money, gifts, houses, cars and everything else under the sun to make sure he plays at their school. They do risk the program being penalized by the NCAA but if everything works out they have a star for a least 3 years (basketball players only have to stay for 1 year). And if they go on probation thats maybe 2 years of a downturn in recruiting and revenue. But what about the player? The player loses his ameture status all together and dreams of making a career out of his passion could be gone forever!
Similarly but in my eyes even worse is when a player has made a name for himself and is ready to take that next step to "The League", and is being courted by agents. We have witnessed this more than ever with they situations at UNC, Alabama, UGA, and South Carolina this year. The agents gives the player improper benefits such as paying for a flight or giving him cash and if uncovered the player's career is done! But what about they agent? The agents gets to go on and sign the next cash cow to boost his reputation and his bank account. The player is affected the most in any situation when there couldn't be a situation if the agent or that booster from the university wasn't involved.
Do I have a solution for the situation? I guess not or someone would be paying me to set up the program. I'm not sure how to have it positioned but I do think that some of this profit being made needs to go to the people most responsible for making the profit. This puts you on a slippery slope because then you start to ask who gets paid more? What is reasonable to pay player's? How and when will payment start and finish? All of these questions are probably why there is nothing that has been done as of now because this is not a new subject. It was not too long ago when scholarship athletes couldn't even have a job! We got past that but this is a situation that needs to be tweeked heavily. More punishment for the people who throw money into these kid's faces knowing how hard it is to resist when many don't have a pot to piss in. A new look at the rules for ameture athletes. And for the parents at home to know they rules and get thoroughly involved so that their child isn't put on the path to possibly ruin his career or the millions that he could make as opposed to the thousands that are offered while still an ameture. The value of an education is important and needs to be prioritized, but that doesn't excuse the neglect of the worth of these player's to these institutions.
"The reason most people fail is because they give up what they want most, for what they want at the moment."
