Universities Earn Billions

While Athletes Get Nothing

Photo Credit: Sherman Report

Ryan Mirwald~Sports Editor~

~February 23, 2016~

College athletes around the United States grind out 40+ hours a week of grueling training
and practice to perfect their sport. This ridiculous work ethic and commitment produces
billions of dollars for the universities they belong to, as well as the overseeing NCAA.

On top of training and playing their beloved sport for 40+ hours a week, these athletes are
under even more stress from school, paying bills for housing and other necessities. According
to The Economist magazine, most student-athletes technically live in poverty, because their
scholarships do not cover the cost of living beyond room and board and the NCAA bars them
from signing independent endorsement or licensing deals" (Players: 0). The athletes are poor,
yet make the universities and the NCAA billions by pouring their hearts into their sports.
Although the universities and NCAA know about this,
they refuse to "pay" or compensate the suffering
athletes.
The controversy at hand is this: should college athletes
be paid? The NCAA's counters paying the athletes by
saying the "amateur" athletes cannot be paid. The
NCAA continues to support not paying the athletes
because most of the players go to college for free under
a scholarship.
The athletes counter back by saying that their
incredible efforts make the universities and the
Photo Credit: N. Anderson- Hudson Chronicle
NCAA billions, while their education costs
thousands. The athletes also risk their own health to
perform in dangerous sports such as football, lacrosse and hockey. Even sports that are
considered non-contact pose a huge threat to injury and the athletes health. Basketball
coach Paul Hewitt of Georgia Technology in Atlanta counters by saying few players truly
move the needle in terms of attendance, TV ratings, or merchandising (Players: 0).
However if few players move the needle, how do college sports revenue about $10.5 billion
a year (Players: 0)? That total amount of revenue is more than the NFL generates in a single
season.
Part of this massive amount of revenue comes from television stations, specifically CBS. The
universities benefit from March Madness more than anything, as billions of people want to
watch the tournaments action every year. In 2010, CBS paid approximately $549 million to
the NCAA just to broadcast the men's basketball tournament alone (Issues and
Controversies). That money climbs right into the universities pockets as the universities don't
have to organize anything at all, for they just collect the money along with letting CBS
televise the tournament.
With the the tournament racking up the exhilaration of the fans to want more gear to support
their team, merchandise sales go through the roof. All of this merchandise from March

Madness helps push the total revenue of merchandise in the NCAA to about $2.5 Billion
annually (Armour). Along with the player names being on the gear, the universities also sell
what is called "team gear". Team gear is warm-ups and clothing that the players wear before
and after games. This gear is sold in stores nationwide, for this "team gear" intrigues people
to buy it solely because the players wear the same
thing.
The NCAA and the universities are solely using
the players names to promote merchandise, and
ticket sales, but the players are being strictly used,
never rewarded.
Being paid is not the only controversy between
the athletes and their overseers.
Photo: Robert Deutsch-USA Today Sports
Compensation for injuries also goes along the
lines of compensation/pay. If an athlete is injured
they cannot receive money to help with the costs (surgery/medications). The NCAA coos
that the amateur athletes cannot receive compensation for injuries on the job.
Athletes are going unpaid, and risking their health to make their owners billions.
Yet if an athlete is injured during play or elsewhere, they can have their scholarship revoked
if they can no longer perform. This happens to many athletes and is a tragic occurrence, as
costs of their injury, school, and extra costs pile up higher than imaginable.
One of the unfortunate people who went through this
painful occurrence was Kevin Ware, a star basketball
player on Louisville during the 2013 season. Ware broke
his leg in a very gruesome way during 2013's March
Madness in an Elite Eight game against Duke. Ware
came from a family of not particularly wealthy people,
so this injury was a massive financial problem. Ware
and his family had to pay for every cost of his injury
because he is considered an "amateur". He had to pay
Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images
for his medications, surgery and everything in between
by himself. Ware's injury took him out of the game so
long that his athletic scholarship wasn't renewed when he
was finally healthy. He then transferred to a local community college to finish his college
schooling after his scholarship was revoked.

Another example of an awful situation happened to

Kyle Hardrick, a basketball athlete who attended
Oklahoma University. Hardrick tore his meniscus
playing basketball for the University of Oklahoma
(Strauss).

Photo: bleacherreport.com

Valerie Hardrick, the mother of Kyle Hardrick, told the

Huffington Post that, "The University of Oklahoma
refused to pay for Kyle's surgery, his rehab, and his
medication" (Klopman).

This star athlete had his whole career ruined because the NCAA prohibits the universities
from paying for the costs of the players injuries and compensating them in any way. Yet
according to Bobby Rush, "without them, we wouldn't have millions of fans buying tickets
for games and subscribing to expensive cable and satellite sports television packages,
corporate sponsors purchasing luxury suites and boxes in college arenas and stadiums, or
consumers paying top dollar for sports paraphernalia, jerseys and video games bearing the
likenesses and autographs of their favorite college players" (Rush).
This raging conflict is highly controversial, as the NCAA and the universities refuse to give in
to the athletes demands of some sort of pay or compensation because they are "amateurs".
Meanwhile the athletes are fighting back with the fact that they live in poverty, they make the
money, and they are at risk of injury daily. Which side are you on?

Citations"Bobby Rush Deserves Medal of Valor for Comparing NCAA to Organized Crime." Bleacher
Report. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.
"By the Numbers: Paying College Athletes." Issues & Controversies. Infobase Learning, 21
June 2010. Web. 8 Feb. 2016. <http://icof.infobaselearing.com/recordurl.aspx?ID=5865>.
Eitzen, D. Stanley. "Slaves of Big-Time College Sports." USA Today (Farmingdale) sept. 2000:
26-30 DB - SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 1 Feb. 2016.
Looney, Douglas S. "Cash, Check or Charge?" Sporting News 1996 jul 01: 38+ DB - SIRS Issues
Researcher. Web. 1 Feb. 2016.
Klopman, Michael. "Bobby Rush, Democratic Congressman Of Illinois, Compares NCAA To
Mafia." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2016.
Neporent, Liz. "Louisville's Kevin Ware Is Dunking Again, 6 Months After Horrific Injury."
ABC News. ABC News Network, 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.
"Players: 0; Colleges $10,000,000,000." Economist. 16 Aug. 2014: 21. SIRS Issue Researcher.
Web. 08 Feb. 16
"Players: 0; Colleges: $10,000,000,000." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 16 Aug.
2014. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.
Sports, Nancy f. "Armour: Wisconsin Gets Revenge, Ruins Kentucky's Historic Season." USA
Today. Gannett, 05 Apr. 2015. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.