Random Blog Post #2: College Athletes Should be Paid

Random Blog Post #2: College Athletes Should be Paid

Duke basketball player Zion Williamson suffering an injury in a February game against North Carolina

            For my 2^nd random blog post I’m going to discuss a debate that I am very passionate about and that is that I believe that college athletes deserve to be compensated. In 2017, The NCAA reported revenues of more than $1 billion. In addition to that, it has been reported that over $10 billion will be wagered on just March Madness basketball games. All of this doesn’t even include how much coaches make, which includes lucrative bonuses for their team’s success such as Michigan State’s basketball coach Tom Izzo getting a $100,000 bonus for his team making this year’s final four. The NCAA continues to claim that the players are students first and athletes second, hence the term “student-athlete.” However, you cannot argue that the top players are really at the school for an education. While most of the top players do end up getting to play professionally, many suffer injuries while playing in college and never make the money they expected. When Duke basketball player Zion Williamson suffered a minor injury this year, many NBA players and talk show hosts came out and said that he should skip out the remainder of the season to avoid suffering another injury that would take away his chances of going to the NBA and finally being compensated for his insane abilities. It just simply doesn’t make sense that the NCAA can have a revenue north of $1 billion and give none of that money to the people that actually make them the money.

            In 2017, University of Central Florida football player Donald De La Haye was ruled ineligible by the NCAA after he refused to give in to the NCAA’s demand that he stops monetizing his YouTube channel. The reason for this was that the videos were of him making trick shot field goals and the NCAA says that their “student-athletes” are not allowed to make money off of their athletic ability. When I first found out about that story I genuinely wanted to throw up. If I was a talented musician and posted videos of myself playing my songs on YouTube then I could make money off it, so why can’t athletes do the same? It’s also important to point out that due to the rigorous schedule that the NCAA athletes have, they don’t have time to get a job and with many athletes coming from poor families, they struggle to afford the basic needs of humans. A few years ago, University of Connecticut star basketball player Shabazz Napier admitted that he frequently went to sleep starving because he didn’t have enough money to feed himself. Napier led his team to a national championship that year and in effect brought in a lot of money for the school but of course he got none of that and couldn’t even afford to buy himself dinner. Personally, I intern in the USC athletic department and one of my main roles is running the USC baseball twitter account during home games. I get paid an hourly wage to tweet about players who don’t make a dime. I honestly feel guilty that I am able to make money as a student worker but the players on the team are playing for free. It’s something that will never make sense to me and I don’t understand how the NCAA could be so ridiculous with these rules.

            One of the main arguments against paying “student-athletes” is that they don’t know how they would do it. It goes without say that a football program brings in a lot more money than the crew program and that players such as Sam Darnold brought in more money to USC than a 3^rd string offensive lineman so how do you compensate them fairly? My answer is simple. NCAA student-athletes should be able to make money off of their own likeness. That means that Sam Darnold should’ve been able to sell shirts with his face on it, Zion Williamson should’ve been able to sell his own custom shoe, and Donald De La Haye should be able to monetize his YouTube channel. This would ensure that the players bringing in the most money to the school and NCAA would be the ones profiting. This also wouldn’t take away any of the money that the NCAA brings in for themselves, so I don’t understand why they won’t allow that. In my eyes the NCAA is an evil, corrupt organization who knows what they’re doing is wrong but don’t care because they just want to make as much money as possible.