The amount of time consumed in training, practice, film, traveling, and other activities for football and men’s basketball players while in season, is equivalent to having a full time job. Division one star athletes such as men’s basketball and football players should be compensated for their hard work and dedication and be able to benefit financial from their time put in.
At the end of the 2015 fiscal year, the South Eastern Conference (SEC) finished with a total revenue of $527.4 million dollars. Out of that revenue, around $455.8 million went to the colleges within the conference, which equates to around $31 million per college. The SEC also accounted for over half of the $906 million the National College Athletics Association (NCAA) made as a whole in 2014 and 2015 (Bain).
College athletes are not allowed to even take a free drink or hamburger from a fan or coach without it being considered in violations of NCAA rules. However their universities are making millions of dollars from them playing on television and their name brand memorabilia.
The deal between the NCAA and CBS/Turner Sports for March Madness between 2011 and 2024 is roughly $11 billion for three weekends of television per year (Wilbon). The athletes that are brining in millions and billions of dollars should be able to benefit from a small portion of it. Wilbon believes that football and men’s basketball players should get paid and other athletes such as lacrosse, field hockey, softball, baseball, soccer players shouldn’t get anything.
Jadeveon Clowney, the former USC defensive end, and number one draft pick to the Houston Texan’s in 2014 is quoted in an article on the NFL webpage on the topic of him leaving USC football program as a junior. He still had one year of eligibility left in the NCAA but decided to enter the NFL after his junior season and never finished his degree. Clowney is quoted in an article written by Chase Goodbread, saying “if I had gotten paid and had a chance to take care of my family through college, I probably would have stayed and finished” (Clowney). Clowney’s story was only one of many that have left college early, without finishing their degree, with the intent to make money to help support their families.
Star college athletes are forbidden from permitting “the use of his or her name or picture to advertise, recommend or promote directly the sale or use of a commercial product or service of any kind” according to NCAA bylaw 12.5.2.1 (NCAA). The article published by USA Today says how that rule is interesting when you look at any college town, specifically Texas A&M, and “as long as their image is making the right people money, bylaws are not in effect” (Walch). The NCAA is only concerned with the money not being in the hands of the athletes, those who image’s the athletic department is ultimately benefiting from.