“The hypocrisy that permeates big-money college sports takes your breath away,” according to a column in the New York Times. “College football and men’s basketball have become such huge commercial enterprises that together they generate more than $6 billion in annual revenue, more than the National Basketball Association.
“A top college coach can make as much or more than a professional coach; Ohio State just agreed to pay Urban Meyer $24 million over six years. Powerful conferences like the S.E.C. and the Pac 12 have signed lucrative TV deals, while the Big 10 and the University of Texas have created their own sports networks. Companies like Coors and Chick-fil-A eagerly toss millions in marketing dollars at college sports. Last year, Turner Broadcasting and CBS signed a 14-year, $10.8 billion deal for the television rights to the N.C.A.A.’s men’s basketball national championship tournament (a k a “March Madness”).
“And what does the labor force that makes it possible for coaches to earn millions, and causes marketers to spend billions, get? Nothing. The workers are supposed to be content with a scholarship that does not even cover the full cost of attending college. Any student athlete who accepts an unapproved, free hamburger from a coach, or even a fan, is in violation of N.C.A.A. rules.
“This glaring, and increasingly untenable, discrepancy between what football and basketball players get and what everyone else in their food chain reaps has led to two things. First, it has bred a deep cynicism among the athletes themselves. Players aren’t stupid. They look around and see jerseys with their names on them being sold in the bookstores. They see 100,000 people in the stands on a Saturday afternoon. During the season, they can end up putting in 50-hour weeks at their sports, and they learn early on not to take any course that might require real effort or interfere with the primary reason they are on campus: to play football or basketball.
“The N.C.A.A. can piously define them as students first, but the players know better. They know they are making money for the athletic department. The N.C.A.A.’s often-stated contention that it is protecting the players from ‘excessive commercialism’ is ludicrous; the only thing it’s protecting is everyone else’s revenue stream. (The N.C.A.A. itself takes in nearly $800 million a year, mostly from its March Madness TV contracts.) ‘Athletes in football and basketball feel unfairly treated,’ Leigh Steinberg, a prominent sports agent, says. ‘The dominant attitude among players is that there is no moral or ethical reason not to take money, because the system is ripping them off.’”
The rest of the article is here.
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I get the arguments for paying college athletes but am 100% privatizing it. Money corrupts and corrodes everything that is supposed to be pure. Give athletes scholarships for a higher education, period. I say make it illegal for pro sports to draft athletes before their four years of eligibility are up. This returns the focus on education instead of statistics that make for a big pay day. Most college athletes do not make it to the bigs and to change the rules for the small few is the wrong approach.
“I say make it illegal for pro sports to draft athletes before their four years of eligibility are up. This returns the focus on education instead of statistics that make for a big pay day.”
Sorry Ben, but this doesn’t make sense to me. I say let them get drafted. Get those guys the hell out of there and focus on education. Do you really think Allen Iverson went to Georgetown for the education? If you do, I have some land I’d like to sell ya’. What was his GPA? How many units did he earn.
I read a paper a few years ago about the number of college graduates in MLB, NFL, & NBA. MLB had a total of 50 players (out of about 800). One had a post grad degree. But MLB can sign foreign players at 16 and high school players here. The NFL, who in theory, only drafts players after 4-5 years in college, had a graduation rate of 50%. The NBA was similar.
I agree that 90+% percent of college athletes are there for the right reason. So, let those few go because they make a mockery of the system.
It should read
“I get the arguments for paying college athletes but am 100% against privatizing it.”
Ben,
This is one thing I would like to see privatized–the universities have no business running training camps for the pros. Let the professional sports leagues run their own training camps, and let the universities focus on academics, of which athletics can be one part, but not the dominant part.
For what it is worth, the best paid state employees are coaches at UC Berkeley, and UCLA respectively. They make over $2 million per year, mainly because they can shake down rich alumni. Such salaries can easily be privatized, along with the payments made to “student” athletes.
Tony
LSU, Bama, U-Wisc, U-Ore, Clemson, WVA and OK State will each earn $22.3M for their bowl appearances this year, win or lose. On the other end of the bowl payouts, U-Ohio and Utah state will get $320K. Rutgers and Iowa State each earned $1.8M for their bowl appearance. Quite odd that Boise State only received $1.1M after finishing the season ranked 7th. Total payouts to the teams who participate in bowl games this season is near $300M. (Huff Post Sports).
Thanks for your comments here. I think this is issue is only going to get bigger. Happy New Year!
I think it is time to end the hypocrisy and pay the student athletes. I also think there should be a reasonable dollar limit on the gifts, and if they are under that limit, not harm no foul. In this day and age they should be able to accept gifts,dinners, tickets, up to $100 per giver — perhaps limited to once or twice a month — something more realistic than the current travesty. This getting in trouble for being bought a hamburger is a crock. Since they are more than paying their way, they at least ought to get a full ride to school. They ought to get bonuses if they play in a bowl game/tournament. And they ought to be allowed to get money from merchandise and do endorsement deals. It is not a good situation all around, but the hypocrisy is the worst of it.
Happy New Year, Jeff!
We need to stop reacting to the symptoms of the problem and pull the problem out by the root. Everything has become part of big business in the guise of more money means better quality when in actuality it means more marketing/ hype with less quality of play. When we shift the emphasis to pleasing boosters, ESPN, Vegas, and sponsors we then lose what makes sports great, the love of the game. I stopped following professional sports in the early 90′s because it had gotten so bad. My dream was to be a professional athlete, I coach at the Jr High and High School levels, and up until the last couple years my son and I had collegiate season football tickets. I love sports but can barely bring myself to watch a corporate named bowl game any longer. Stanford is in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.
College Bowl Names as well as Games are Big Business
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12001/1200596-449-0.stm?cmpid=newspanel3#ixzz1iGQ0tVbW
excerpt
When times were simpler
Thirty years ago, there were but 16 bowl games, many of them named for agricultural or horticultural delights like sugar and cotton and peaches; not a one had yet been tagged by corporate interests.
It all began to change with this brief news item in The Miami Herald on March 16, 1983:
“The Tangerine Bowl postseason college game in Orlando will be renamed the Florida Citrus Bowl under a new $250,000-a-year sponsorship agreement with the state’s citrus industry. The Tangerine Sports Association also said the teams competing in the game next year will earn $500,000 for their schools, $150,000 more than last year.”
The equation was cast. Selling title sponsorships brought in cash that helped bowls to woo stronger teams, boosting ticket sales and TV ratings, meaning more money.
Another domino fell two years later when the Fiesta Bowl announced a deal that made it the Sunkist Fiesta Bowl and increased the bowl’s payoffs to participating teams by a reported $500,000, as the bowl’s sponsors made a successful move to join the elite ranks of the Rose, Orange and Sugar bowls.
According to news accounts, NBC, which televised the game, at first refused to add the “Sunkist,” in what would become the broadcasting equivalent of Custer’s Last Stand. “We hoped … by our leadership, that we could stop the movement,” an executive said.
A year later, NBC had changed its mind, the same executive saying it was “acknowledging the reality that a number of bowls have corporate sponsors. The economic marketplace made it sensible to append the name.” It might have helped that Sunkist bought commercial time from NBC.
Soon, you had your USF&G Sugar Bowl, your Mobil Cotton Bowl Classic, your Mazda Gator Bowl and your Sea World Holiday Bowl. You had your FedEx Orange Bowl, a marriage that would last 20 years before it absolutely, positively dissolved in 2010 and the game became the Discover Orange Bowl.
I respectfully disagree, Ben. If you want a “pure” sport, root for the field hockey team.
As long as people are willing to pay, the big college sports will be sold. The trick is to do it without hypocrisy and for the benefit of all, including the players. As it stands now everyone gets a cut except the players. The genie is out of the bottle, the horse has left the barn, and so forth…
For the record I’m not a fan of corporate names in front of the name of every bowl game. Do most people even remember whether it is the Discover or the Fedex Orange Bowl? They still tune into the Orange Bowl, and unless they have a personal tie to one of the schools playing, they are looking to see a well played game between the semi-pros who are euphemistically called student athletes. They may also watch to size up who might end up where in the NFL Draft.
Pull the problem out by the root when it supports the whole tree? Not going to happen. That’s why I believe that changing the rules to reflect reality and inject some fairness into the system for the students (who are doing a job that has become very highly valued) is a better course of action.
Gail,
Most of my friends who are fanatics would agree with you but I just respectfully disagree.
I think you are missing my point. The hype and marketing are what makes college sports big money. The funding for that hype/ marketing comes from big business exploiting athletes and college programs. It is a vicious cycle that needs to be dealt with before it destroys what integrity that still remains. The more the funding influences the programs the more those companies or wealthy individuals start having influence on the curriculum at the universities themselves. If you want to have x amount of money for next years season y university needs to have a study on global warming isn’t caused by human behavior. What companies could have enough profits to corrupt a universities science department?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/business/global/exxon-and-shell-earnings.html
“Exxon, the biggest American oil company, reported earnings of $10.7 billion for the quarter, up from $7.56 billion the year before, but a bit less than Wall Street had been expecting. Shell, the largest European oil company, posted profits of $8.7 billion, up from $4.4 billion a year ago.”
I appreciate your view, Ben. I see why I’m on the opposite end of it. I believe that the money, hype, and marketing followed the interest.
By the way, I believe the funding for research would be tainted by corporate interests irregardless of the sports programs. Companies can and will fund the best research results that money can buy. Just look at our fine pharma industry and way it operates.
Maybe we just all need to work harder on that corporate personhood issue. No doubt that corporations are not natural persons and that corporations have far too much power and influence. I wonder how much extra each of us pays in order for these companies to sponsor the bowl games? Probably pennies and some would argue that the entertainment is a good value, but it certainly is good to question it. The corporate profits that fund these kinds of sponsorships and the astronomical CEO and officer salaries, options, etc., come out of our pockets.
Deeply appreciated hearing you expand on it, Ben.
P.S. For those who are lost in maze of bowl games, this guide is helpful:
http://football.about.com/od/bowlgames/a/Bowl_System.htm
NBA, player get 51% of net.
Therefore college players and as many as possible of the high grades/low income students, all get full tuition/room/board scholarships, or payments towards loans. No regular students, no colleges, no games, so the regular students are also entitled to a piece of the pie.
Everyone,
Here is an article about pro athletes and their money. But first about making it illegal for pro’s to draft. A scholarship is a contract with the school. In the most basic idea of that contract is a costly education in exchange for athletic skills. Everyone knows it is an investment for the school but many of these athletes couldn’t afford school otherwise. I think the real question is why has our higher education system become so expensive?
Education should be the focus not preparing them for the majors, bigs, or show. Or possibly an education in player management (themselves) should be a requirement to leave early.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1153364
How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke
Recession or no recession, many NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball players have a penchant for losing most or all of their money. It doesn’t matter how much they make. And the ways they blow it are strikingly similar
Here is an excerpt
“What happens to many athletes and their money is indeed hard to believe. In this month alone Saints alltime leading rusher Deuce McAllister filed for bankruptcy protection for the Jackson, Miss., car dealership he owns; Panthers receiver Muhsin Muhammad put his mansion in Charlotte up for sale on eBay a month after news broke that his entertainment company was being sued by Wachovia Bank for overdue credit-card payments; and penniless former NFL running back Travis Henry was jailed for nonpayment of child support.
In a less public way, other athletes from the nation’s three biggest and most profitable leagues—the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball—are suffering from a financial pandemic. Although salaries have risen steadily during the last three decades, reports from a host of sources (athletes, players’ associations, agents and financial advisers) indicate that:
• By the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce.
• Within five years of retirement, an estimated 60% of former NBA players are broke.
• Numerous retired MLB players have been similarly ruined, and the current economic crisis is taking a toll on some active players as well.”
What would be wrong about putting the athletes “cut” in trust–to be held until they leave college sports or indefinitely during their pro years if that is their wish? It could provide a cushion of sorts when they transition in or out of the pros or out of the university if not drafted for the pros.
Maybe accompanied by a “swag limit” of 5k per year, if one goes past it they get kicked in their account…hard.
Kate
Another pro athlete broke within a few years of retirement after receiving around $120 million in contracts over his career. He attended jr college but has no degree. It appears he had a very modest upbringing. So he went from not having much money to having more money than most people will earn in a 40 year working lifetime in less than 10 years. A college degree and all the education that comes along with a degree could have helped him prevent this from happening and at the very least would be giving him something to fall back on today as a out shape ex-jock in his mid-40′s.
excerpt from the article.
“Schilling said he sat down his family about a month ago and explained to them that “38 Studios was probably going to fail and go bankrupt, and that the money that I had earned and saved during baseball was probably all gone. And that it was my fault. And that they might start hearing some things in school and things like that. And let’s be clear: We’re not talking about a terminal illness or somebody (dying). But it’s a life-changing thing. It’s not a conversation I would wish on any father, or on anybody. But I had to do it, and explain to them that part of growing up is being accountable. This was my decision to do this, and I failed. And life would probably start to change and be very different for us.”
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/curt-schilling-says-tapped-financially-failure-video-game-175016849–mlb.html
Don’t worry Ben, Dumb-Ass Schilling will probably get a pitching coach job in the near future. I believe nowadays most clubs require players to take financial planning classes and are set up with an advisor. that being said,”you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”…who said jocks are dumb?