![should college athletes be paid should college athletes be paid](http://ncaaathletepay.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/5/9/50595193/357648_orig.png)
The value of a four-year scholarship can reach upwards of $250,000. All of this begs the question-are big-time college athletes amateurs? By some measures they are certainly well compensated. Similar to the court in the O’Bannon case, the National Labor Relations Board did not allow the team to unionize but held many of the rules imposed on the players by the University to be “unlawful”. Second, the Northwestern University football team sought the opportunity to unionize as employees. The courts held that certain NCAA rules violate federal antitrust law, but failed to sanction pay-to-play. First, the lawsuit filed by former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon sought compensation for the commercial use of his image. Certainly they came in anticipation of seeing the next Ezekiel Elliott, but undeniably the brand value accrues to the OSU football program built up over 100 years and not any particular athlete.Īmateurism-are athletes employees? Two major events have challenged the traditional NCAA position on amateurism. So, in a practice game in which most of the participants were not at all well known, over 100,000 people still attended. OSU had sent a record number of athletes to the NFL following the prior season and, in fact, returned only a small handful of starters. A perfect example of this was the spring game last April which was held the day after the panel discussion. If Ezekiel Elliott was injured early in the season, would 100,000+ people still show up for the games on Saturday. This argument was addressed in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education which rightfully points out that the brand value is Ohio State football and not the individual players (not to negate how exciting a player Ezekiel Elliott was). This analysis is flawed- wrongfully attributing the brand value to the athletes rather than the University sports programs. Were it not for Ezekiel Elliott, no one would show up for the games on Saturday. The implication, although not often stated in these types of analyses, is that these universities are able to attract ticket buyers and ancillary revenue because of the notoriety and brand value of the athletes. The University of Texas had the highest value $671,000, at OSU that value was $462,000 and the NCAA Division I-A (FBS) average was $164,000. Business Insider did an analysis calculating the value of each player by allocating 47% of annual football revenue over the 85 scholarship athletes. A common analysis is to calculate the “fair market value” of college football players. Coaches are paid millions of dollars and are often the highest paid employees at many universities with big-time sports programs. The most common argument is that universities reap millions of dollars in revenue on the backs of unpaid and overworked athletes. While the issue is quite complex, here are five significant issues that need to be considered.īig money and the value of college athletes. This is a position I’ve held for some time, but the panel provided some thought-provoking insights. Here I would like to briefly discuss why I think paying college athletes would be at least intractable and at worst a major mistake. In particular, while some panel members recommended that players be paid, a variety of other less drastic suggestions surfaced which address some of the specific issues often raised to justify pay-to-play. The discussion was quite lively and, while some of it was expected, many aspects were quite enlightening.
SHOULD COLLEGE ATHLETES BE PAID PROFESSIONAL
The second panel included seven former OSU athletes, most of whom had enjoyed successful professional careers. The first section featured experts in sports law, economics and the media. Its goal is to promote high-quality research related to issues of societal concern in sports at all levels through research grants, undergraduate and graduate training and internships as well as sponsoring conferences and interactions with policymakers. SSI is devoted to the development of a better understanding of the role of amateur and professional sports in the economy and society at large. Last spring the Sports and Society Initiative (SSI) at the Ohio State University (OSU) held a popular panel discussion on pay-to-play in college sports. By far the most ubiquitous solution is paying college athletes. It’s almost impossible to read the popular sports media these days without hearing about the significant issues in big-time college sports in general and with the NCAA in particular. The following is an article written by a member of SSI’s Board of Advisors, and President and Founder at Via Strategy Group LLC, Jim Treleaven.