The Exploitation of College Athletes

ah

in college sports american universities

are exploiting

disproportionately black athletes for

billions of dollars

while diminishing their education health

and safety

let me start with a bit of history in

november 1984

an undersized quarterback from boston

college named doug flutie

for a game-winning touchdown pass

against the defending national champions

university of miami as the hail mary

pass floated through the fall

air in front of a pack stadium millions

more watched with excitement on tv

after the dramatic win undergraduate

application rates at boston college

shot up by 30 percent revealing to

universities the enormous marketing

value

of building high profile sports programs

that same year the united states supreme

court heard a case in which the

universities of georgia

and oklahoma challenged rules that

limited the number of football games

they could play on tv

those schools saw the opportunity to not

only make money by televising their

games

but to also market their universities to

the world

the supreme court agreed that the

broadcasting restrictions were illegal

and schools began to negotiate tv deals

worth millions

that case opened the flood gates to

money and college athletics

and with it ever-growing conflicts of

interest that prioritize

sports over education promote wins over

health and safety

and reinforce the disturbing racial and

economic inequities in our country

since then the growth in college sports

has been extraordinary

and schools have earned record revenues

year after year

the spending during that same time

period has increased at almost the same

dramatic pace

as universities engage in an arms race

to the top of the rankings

massive expenditures on new stadiums

bigger staffs and record salaries

have made it appear on the books at

least that athletic departments are

losing money

while they build lavish facilities and

make multi-millionaires out of

coaches and administrators in fact

in 40 out of 50 states the highest paid

public employee

is now a college football or basketball

coach

meanwhile college athletes whose elite

talents

generate these massive revenues are not

only denied the

ability to share in the riches they

create too many of them

are not given the education they’re

promised either

today college athletes are exploited to

the tune

of almost 15 billion dollars

that’s how much money is generated by

college sports each year

and i’m all too familiar with the

exploitation because

i used to be responsible for enforcing

it

following my own college baseball career

at the university of dayton

i went on to law school before becoming

an investigator at the national

collegiate athletic association

i traveled to college campuses across

the country

and helped him force a 400-page rule

book that denies athletes the right to

get paid for their performance

or even profit from their own name for

instance

unlike the music student who in addition

to their scholarship

can get paid to record a song or the

english student who

in addition to their scholarship can get

paid to write a book

college athletes cannot profit from

their talents or even

take a free meal without being ruled and

eligible and risking their scholarship

during my time as an investigator i

questioned hundreds of athletes and

their families about their financial

transactions

dug through their personal bank and

phone records and scrutinized their

relationships

to a humiliating degree all for the

possibility that someone gave them

something beyond a scholarship

no matter how petty in one case

i questioned ohio state football players

who receive free tattoos

and cash in exchange for memorabilia the

case received national attention

and became known as tattoo gate as if it

were a scandal on par with political

espionage

the players were suspended and had to

repay the cash as well as the value of

the tattoos

in effect unpaid athletes were fined by

a billion dollar organization

that gets paid by sponsors to decorate

the athletes in corporate logos

i was told my job was to promote

fairness but there was nothing fair

about that

shortly thereafter i left the ncaa and

started fighting for the athletes

it became increasingly clear to me that

rules supposedly designed to prevent

exploitation

instead allow a collection of

universities and their wealthy corporate

sponsors

to profit off the athletes who are

promised an education

and lured by a chance that the pros but

who too often

end up with nothing now some people

believe college athletes get a free ride

however there is nothing free about

risking health and safety

while working 40 to 50 hours per week as

you fight to keep your scholarship

in football alone there are over 20 000

injuries a year

including 4 000 knee injuries and a

thousand spinal injuries

since 2000 40 players have died

beyond football a recent study revealed

that an estimated

60 percent of division one college

athletes

suffer a major injury in their career

and over half of them endure chronic

conditions that last well beyond their

playing days

there is nothing free about that

especially as the ncaa refuses to

enforce health and safety standards

and has denied in court it even has that

responsibility

and about that education they’re

promised according to the college sports

research institute black football

and basketball players in the top five

conferences

graduate at 22 and 37 percent lower

than the undergraduate population those

who do

graduate are often shuffled into majors

with watered-down courses that conform

to their athletic schedules to simply

keep them eligible

the time demands and required focus on

sports

makes it challenging for even the most

well-intentioned athlete to get a

meaningful education this is

unacceptable for a 15 billion dollar

industry

run by institutions whose mission is to

educate young people

although plenty of athletes succeed

their achievements don’t require rules

that deny pay

or a system that limits educational

opportunities or

neglects health and safety the fact is

american universities oversee a

multi-billion dollar entertainment

industry

that denies fundamental rights to its

essential workers

a disproportionate number of whom are

black while making

millionaires of largely white coaches

and administrators

this dynamic has not only deprived many

young people of a meaningful education

it has shifted generations of wealth

away from mostly black families

and represents the systemic inequities

plaguing our society

the good news is that people are

starting to see the truth

the ncaa’s own public polling has

revealed that a staggering 79 percent of

the public

believe that colleges put money ahead of

their athletes

state and federal lawmakers both

republican and democrat

have also taken notice and started to

act

several u.s senators have rightly

described the problems in college sports

as a civil rights issue meanwhile

college athletes from across the country

have started to stand up

to demand greater health and safety

protections representation rights

attention to racial and social justice

issues

and economic fairness those who think

the players should just stick to sports

fail to recognize how rarely college

athletes speak up

and ignore the great personal risk they

take in confronting a powerful industry

especially without any representation

more importantly

critics fail to acknowledge that college

athletes are simply seeking rights

that are afforded to virtually everyone

else in this country

and basic protections that shouldn’t

even be in question

i agree that college sports should be an

enjoyable distraction

but not when they’re distracting us from

the very injustice they enable

in his retirement the ncaa’s first and

longest-serving executive director

walter byers described college sports as

the plantation mentality resurrected

and blessed by today’s campus executives

this is a telling quote from the man who

designed this system

and the one who knew it best but you

don’t have to be an

insider to recognize the exploitation of

young people

you don’t have to be a republican or a

democrat to be troubled by the

irresponsible spending

or the disregard for values at our

universities

you don’t even have to be a sports fan

you just have to believe in basic ideas

of fairness

and the values of higher education

so let’s require that all college

athletes are given a chance at a

meaningful education

let’s demand responsible spending by our

universities

and fairly allocate the billions of

dollars being generated

let’s create robust health and safety

standards to protect those who entertain

us with their bodies

and enforce those standards let’s

provide college athletes with a

representative body

so they have recourse when things go

wrong and a voice about how to make

things right

finally let’s rise the challenge of our

time

and once and for all correct the

persistent racial

and economic inequities that apply to

college sports

and beyond change is long overdue

but there has never been a better time

than now

you