How Improper are “Improper Benefits?”

The Pac-12 conference just signed a $3 billion deal to start the Pac-12 network. It will pay the conference $250 million annually, roughly $21 million per school. It now puts the Pac-12 in the forefront of the money ruled business that is college sports. Notice I used the word BUSINESS, because that’s what college sports is, a business, unless of course one happens to be a worker on the field, court, track, etc. If you happen to be a worker then you are “student athlete” not privy to any “improper benefits,” while anyone else involved in the process can reap all the benefits of the workers’ hard work. The NCAA is a billion dollar enterprise that exploits its workers, by calling them amateurs. However, these amateurs fill stadiums and gymnasiums across the country. These amateurs are subject to ridicule and scrutiny on any number of sports networks and programs any time a DUI, or bar fight happens. These same amateurs are not allowed to sell jerseys that they wore and sweated in, while schools can sell jerseys for $80 a pop, while the athlete who wears the jersey gets bumpkus.

This is wrong. The NCAA claims to be a non-profit organization. Billions of dollars sure seems like a great deal of non-profit.

Why is this a capitalist country, unless one can run extremely fast, or jump enormously high with a ball in one’s hand? The NCAA’s indentured servants, or student athletes as they are conveniently called, are strictly prohibited from any and all financial gain pertaining to their own athletic ability; however, the NCAA’s March Madness Tournament is the largest grossing playoff in North America. It grosses over $600 million annually. That’s more than any professional sports playoff. Boy that’s a lot of non-profit.

The Fiesta Bowl fiasco just goes to show the hypocrisy of college athletics. Bowl executives are flying all over the country with exorbitant expenditures and six figure salaries, yet college football players, who make up the product that these bowl executives are selling, can’t receive nary a dime without severe consequences.

I’ve often heard the argument that college athletes are paid via scholarship and that “education is invaluable.” First of all, no it’s not invaluable. How many people out there are currently unemployed with one or more college degrees? To quote Speech from Arrested Development, “spend all that money on big colleges, still most of y’all come out confused.” To those who feel that way, I ask this question, who amongst us would go to work everyday if the boss said, “I’m not going to pay you money, but I will give you full benefits.” An education is the equivalent of benefits and insurance. Believe me college sports is a full time job for student athletes.

This is wrong. This is socialism at its finest. I‘ve heard many a politician called socialist, but I’ve not once heard the NCAA called a socialist organization. What’s more socialist than setting a cap on the marketability of an athlete at zero? One of the arguments against paying athletes is that most college athletic departments don’t make money. To that I say, so what. I’m not saying that they need to be paid, I’m just arguing the point that they should be able to make money, those are not synonymous.

My point is that if a booster wants to put money in a kid’s hand because he scored a touchdown to beat a rival, or a sneaker company wants a star point guard to endorse its shoes, then that should be legal, since everybody but the guys who make the tackles, and dunk the basketballs balls are allowed to make as much money as possible.