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