By David Pollak
Staff Writer
Millions of dollars were generated recently at the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament. Villanova University has won the tournament twice out of the last three seasons, with most of their roster returning from the first national title run. However, despite all the money generated through TV contracts, ads, and more, the players haven’t seen a single dime of it. With the recent scandals of college basketball players being paid to play for their school, it’s a topic of discussion that’s been on the table for a great deal of time. It’s time for college athletes to be paid.
College basketball is just one of the money makers for the NCAA. With the College Football Playoff being introduced in the 2014 season, football produces its fair share of revenue as well. Different from March Madness, only four universities are fighting for a shot to be national champs, compared to the 68 in March Madness. Outside of the College Football Playoff, there are 40 different bowl games and 80 universities competing to become bowl winners and claim financial prizes for their schools. According to Forbes, each school made $22 million for the BCS Title Game, with $18 million earned per team in the BCS Games. While a portion of this income is going to the conference, a large amount of profit is still going towards the schools.
The counter-argument of college athletes being “paid” by having a free education is a valid one, but the situation is much deeper than that. While student-athletes have tuition, meal plans, room and board, and more covered for, they are not exempt from the other obstacles they have to work with. A college athlete is not allowed to work a part-time job while on scholarship as it is deemed illegal by the NCAA. An athlete’s schedule is beyond fathomable.
Between scheduled practices and film study, workouts, classes and designated study hours, it is nearly impossible for an athlete to even have time to eat most of the time. It wasn’t until April of 2014 that the NCAA updated the guidelines for food rules. The three changes included are the following: Any meal plan made available to all students, additional meals at the institution’s discretion to meet nutritional needs, and any type of snack. While this is a step in the right direction, more work needs to be done to help better suit the needs of collegiate athletes.
Meanwhile, the apparel, tickets, food, and beverages that are purchased at games should also be taken into consideration. Walking around Beaver Stadium and seeing the amount of Saquon Barkley jerseys is amazing. However, knowing that not a single dime of the profit goes to him is among the many reasons the NCAA is a corrupt organization.
Without a doubt, football and basketball bring in the most revenue for the NCAA and most universities. However, where do sports such as soccer, baseball/softball and swimming fall into play? There’s a case for both sides, but in reality, basketball and football produce the most revenue for the NCAA and most universities. For example, tennis is clearly not bringing in the same amount of money as football for Penn State.
With many different proposals on how much and who should be paid, I have a solution in my mind. I think that all D-1 athletes should be paid in some fashion. A non-athlete that has a full scholarship to attend a university has the option to work and earn an income on the side, yet a student-athlete with a full scholarship is not allowed to work on the side, per NCAA rules. These students are acquiring the same benefits, having school completely covered for, but one is not allowed to work because they play a sport? That’s completely absurd. While all students being payed is the correct option, I do not believe that all of them should be paid the same.
As stated previously, each sport program isn’t bringing in the same amount of profit. I feel as if it should be a tiered system. According to a Business Insider article in 2016, each university brings in around $29.5 million in profit from football and $7.8 million from basketball. The next sports are men’s ice hockey, women’s basketball and men’s baseball. With such a large gap in profits, I feel as if a tiered system would work the best. Basketball and football would be tier 1, with the rest of the tiers calculated by the average amount of revenue per sport. I do not believe that the income should be determined by each school, because that would result in athletes going to the school that is offering them the most money to play for their program. And that’s a whole other story to talk about.
Times are changing, sports are evolving and it’s time for the NCAA to honor these athletes with compensation. Because without the athletes, the NCAA wouldn’t be where it is today.
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