You don't know how serious the injury is and you don't know the timetable for your return. It could be days, weeks, even months. And in a world where each game you play in college matters not just for your team's sake, but for your own future salary and livelihood, losing precious time on the court could not only cost you millions of dollars, but even the ability to rise above poverty.
This is precisely the risk that many male college basketball and football players experience. Injuring their bodies while they play for free, all in the hopes of escaping the federal poverty line is an all too common reality shared by these athletes. According to the National College Players Association (NCAP), FBS schools who dole out "full" scholarships (on average students still pay $3,222 out of pocket) still leave 85% of students living on campus and 86% who live off campus below the federal poverty line. Not only must they still pay for tuition, they continue to live in poverty while playing in a billion dollar industry that thrives on the backs of their free labor.
What is perhaps even more concerning is the fact that the institutions that receive the most combined revenue from football and basketball are home to the most impoverished athletes. The University of Florida, for example, had a combined revenue of $78,899,886 from football and basketball, yet their average athlete was living $2,250 below the poverty line. Even with the highest combined revenue of any FBS school, there is not a penny to spare to the poor athletes that created such high earnings. Despite this, college coaches remain some of the highest paid public employees in the United States.
Not only do colleges themselves make a great deal of money off of these "student athletes", the NCAA as whole generates a mind bogglingly large sum of money because of them. In the 2016-2017 collegiate athletic year, the NCAA made over $1 billion in revenue for the first time in history. The NCAA men's tournament alone netted $769 million. This number is expected to continue to rise, and we will eventually see a basketball tournament comprised of "amateur" male athletes who will see exactly $0 of the the $1 billion that they alone made possible.
Yet, when many of us think of college athletics, we think about all of the advantages that these students receive. Yes, they receive scholarships that many of us dream of. Yes, they are given some of the best accommodations that colleges have to offer. And wouldn't it be nice to be playing basketball instead of sitting in vast lecture halls during the bleak months of February and March? However, as does anything else, these seemingly immense privileges come at a hefty price. For many, it costs them their bodies, their education, and future job opportunities, all for the dream that the NCAA rides on: to make it to the pros. But with less than 2% of NCAA men's basketball players and football players making it to the Big Time, shouldn't an education come first? Not when the very reason why you were able to attend an institution is the same reason why you are able to be exploited. So instead of saying "student athlete", perhaps a more apt term for these kids is "exploited athlete".
Works Cited
Harms, Emily. “The Zoo: Exploitation of College Athletes.” THE RAMBLER, 19 Apr. 2015, illinoiscollegerambler.wordpress.com/2015/04/21/the-zoo-exploitation-of-college-athletes/.
Huma, Ramogi, and Ellen J Staurowsky. The Price of Poverty in Big Time College Sport. NCPA, 2011, The Price of Poverty in Big Time College Sport.
Perry, Jack. “Exploitation of African American ‘Student-Athletes.’” ENGL20127, sites.ewu.edu/engl201-27/home/exploitation-of-african-american-student-athletes-by-jack-perry/.
This is a super interesting post and I think it is covering an extremely important issue for college athletes. It would be interesting to explore more into how the media perpetuates the idea of an "amateur" and how that can have undue influence on the decision making of these college athletes. For example, when Zion went down and NBA players and some commentators were telling him to shut down for the season, many people were saying that would be betraying the sport and that he has a responsibility to play for the good of NCAA basketball. I think the media negatively affects kids in this way because they feel as though they owe the school and the NCAA something for giving them an opportunity when in fact they are the people that are owed something. Also, in terms of compensation I think an easy fix would be to at least compensate athletes when their jerseys are distributed because that is literally using their image and likeness.
ReplyDeleteI was incredibly interested by this post, and especially being a nonathelte, the concepts presented here were ones I had never considered before. I really appreciated the way you truly utilized the sociological imagination in your post and made the idea of these personal issues, such as Zion William's story, a larger, public discussion regarding the larger issue of compensation for college athletes. I think this is an especially relevant issue when one looks at the loss of scholarships for injuries, which are statistics I would be interested in looking more into. I had never thought about the reality that although yes, the scholarships these athletes receive are huge blessings, that they can be ripped away due to an injury or complication. At that point, much of the time the athlete has devoted to the sport instead of to a college job or school work, are wasted. I additionally think that with the knowledge that these coaches get paid huge amounts of money, this issue can be examined through a conflict perspective, where coaches and school officials benefit off of the hard work of these athletes who are suffering without pay and with grueling work. I definitely do think if compensation was added for college athletes, it would be important to make sure that we didn't see gender or ethnic minorities suffering from unequal pay as is common with many other sports in America, but as a whole, I believe your perspective is incredibly insightful.
ReplyDeleteThis issue of NCAA paying athletes has been an issue for a very long time. I like how you used Zion as the main player in your post. He has been one of the most important college athletes in the past decade because of his freakish athleticism. I agree with you that college athletes should be paid, but not all. For example in this years NCAA tournament there was a camera that only followed Zion Williamson, it was called the "Zion-Cam". Zion should be receive a money for this and so should players if they are used in commercials or any other advertising. However a baseball and softball bring in significantly less money, so those athletes should not make as much as basketball players in the Final Four. Finding the correct amount an athlete should get paid is nearly impossible. But athletes that are forced to attend college, since they cannot go to the professional leagues early deserve compensation for the risk of injury and money they bring to the NCAA.
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