Sunday, November 18, 2007

Unpaid College Athletes.

TwitThis



Micheal Lewis has officially been added to the egg recipient short list.

His most recent piece makes a cohesive argument for why college
athletes at power house schools are entitled to receive payment
for their work.


Man. This is one of my favorite topics.

Right up there with Doom, High Achieve Low Income students
and feminist and hip hop.

Full disclosure, I had a preexisting affinity for Michael, as he
wrote the national bestselling Moneyball about my darling A's.

He writes:

College football’s best trick play is its pretense that it has nothing to do with money, that it’s simply an extension of the university’s mission to educate its students. Were the public to view college football as mainly a business, it might start asking questions. For instance: why are these enterprises that have nothing to do with education and everything to do with profits exempt from paying taxes? Or why don’t they pay their employees?
So. Its about education. Right. If that were the case, why does it take
athletes so long to graduate, why are they excused from classes more so
than the average student, why are they allowed to remain students while
being functionally literate.

Uh. 'Cuz they can throw the ball like a f*cking..

Shit is all about the benjis.

Awww. And here is the passage that garners egg avaialbility status.
This is maybe the oddest aspect of the college football business. Everyone associated with it is getting rich except the people whose labor creates the value. At this moment there are thousands of big-time college football players, many of whom are black and poor. They perform for the intense pleasure of millions of rabid college football fans, many of whom are rich and white. The world’s most enthusiastic racially integrated marketplace is waiting to happen.

Sound like hip hop to you?

Reading shit like this makes being a model minorty, that much more tolerable.
But between buyer and seller sits the National Collegiate Athletic Association, to ensure that the universities it polices keep all the money for themselves — to make sure that the rich white folk do not slip so much as a free chicken sandwich under the table to the poor black kids. The poor black kids put up with it because they find it all but impossible to pursue N.F.L. careers unless they play at least three years in college. Less than one percent actually sign professional football contracts and, of those, an infinitesimal fraction ever make serious money. But their hope is eternal, and their ignorance exploitable.

Then he kills it, doing puff puff pass to the elephant in the room.

But their hope is eternal, and
their ignorance exploitable. SO much of
what I perceive about minorities, model & otherwise, is summed up
by this statement.

And then there is this statement.

Put that way the arrangement sounds like simple theft; but up close, inside the university, it apparently feels like high principle. That principle, as stated by the N.C.A.A., is that college sports should never be commercialized. But it’s too late for that.
College football already is commercialized, for everyone except the people who play it.

Reminds me of reading 40 Million Dollar Slaves.

Also reminds me of Frank Lucas a dude with money, but NO wealth.

Oh. And the word on the street is that that USC Reggie Bush sh*t is about
to go Barry Bonds.


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Should college athletes get a compensation?

If so, why or why not?

What if anything should change about college ball?

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only level of sports that doesn't make some kind of profit is little league.

In high school (speaking specifically toward football, since that's what I played), you'll have football practice six days a week. Each practice lasting 4 1/2 hours. On Saturdays, you may spend anywhere from 2 to 3 hours practicing.
From these games, everyone makes money except the players. In fact, I would propose that High school players have it worse.
They receive a "free" education, so the only thing the coaches can offer is the suggestion that playing will bring scholarship offers and personal satisfaction.
The equipment is provided by the government (or rather, the funds need to acquire that equipment).
Despite this, at games, the establishment receives profit from the food and tickets they sale, the "merchandise" they sale, and anything else they can get money from.

Colleges are the same, just on a MUCH larger scale.
Should those athletes get paid? I've always felt like they should.
They're providing a service. They're entertaining.
Every time they play, they're putting their physical health on the line, but they don't get anything for it.

The problem with that though is that it will completely reshape the face of college football/basketball. There's no way the establishment would be able to function as they currently do if they began paying players. It would become NFL-esque.
You wouldn't be able to provide a base pay. You would have players who would feel since they start they should be paid more; since they are the most recognizable from the team, they should be paid more; since they're a Heisman trophy winner, they should be paid more than the rest of the college football league.

It would become a league of negotiations and trades and the effects would be far reaching.
Negotiations between college players and the NFL would be harder. Paying athletes in college would affect both High School football and the NFL.

I know some people who watch college ball simply because they love the fact that the players DON'T get paid. They feel it makes the game that much more real; the fact that the individual plays strictly for the love of the sport. Giving salaries would change that.

So do I think they should be paid? Definitely. Shit is almost like modern day slavery.
But would it change college football/basketball? Absolutely.

M.Dot. said...

The problem with that though is that it will completely reshape the face of college football/basketball. There's no way the establishment would be able to function as they currently do if they began paying players. It would become NFL-esque.
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It already is NFL esque.


It would become a league of negotiations and trades and the effects would be far reaching.
Negotiations between college players and the NFL would be harder. Paying athletes in college would affect both High School football and the NFL.
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Right. And exactly whose interst's are served by this?


I know some people who watch college ball simply because they love the fact that the players DON'T get paid. They feel it makes the game that much more real;
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When was the last time they had their collar bones broken, knees torn, spines crack, concussion's concussioned?

Anonymous said...

The issue of college athlets getting paid it a tough question. Regardless of whether they take advantage of it or not, athletes are given the opportunity to get an education & board worth roughly $72,000 - $150,000. They are given more leeway in attending class and have a fuller schedule to balance. Some take advantage of this and some don't.

I think that college athletes (football/basketball) should be given some sort of compensation, but not alot. Because they are bringing in the schools TONS of money. Theoretically this could stop boosters from giving money to players already, but we already know that won't happen.

The only reason that I'm sorta for athletes getting paid, is that they don't have to option/opportunity to work whenever they want.

Also, what do we say to other athletes who feel the need to be compensated. The only reason sports like baseball, softball, golf, women's basketball, men's/women's soccer, golf, etc... Exsist is with the money generated from football and men's basketball.


Being around athletes(& friends) at Ohio State, I'd personally say that all the athletess are pretty taken care of already and very few actually look like they want for anything.

Anonymous said...

Athletes should get paid according to how popular their sport is. i dont think they should be getting a princely sum, but enough so theyre not in debt when they leave. every-time a college wins a championship its the college that benefits more so than the athletes. the least colleges could do is help with tuition. Not everyone deserves a free ride, but those athletes gotta work hard on and off the court. i know alot dont work that hard off, but they should be compensated some what. Education is not cheap. and if they get injured, neither is knee surgery.

Invisible man the first book? we gotta set this up correctly. at least now ill have people to talk to about the books i read, or should i say, we'll read.

Gone...

Model Minority said...

The only reason that I'm sorta for athletes getting paid, is that they don't have to option/opportunity to work whenever they want.
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They are working.

FOR free.

Oh. Wait.

They are receiving a "world class education".

Whats ironic is that the same white people who Hate 1965 affirmative action are willing to allow ball players with sub par grades and SAT'S in, because it furthers their interest in seeing their team win the sugar/rose/orange bowl.

Anonymous said...

Whats ironic is that the same white people who Hate 1965 affirmative action are willing to allow ball players with sub par grades and SAT'S in, because it furthers their interest in seeing their team win the sugar/rose/orange bowl.
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And that's the got'cha got'cha, lol.

Anonymous said...

Right. And exactly whose interst's are served by this?
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It's definitely a benefit to the athlete to be compensated.
But I think you have to be far-sighted when thinking of the repercussions of something such as paying athletes. What about those students who don't play sports? The universities wouldn't dig into their own pockets to pay athletes. Their pay would come from students' tuitions.
The sport would become more "work" oriented. That means even more demands of the athlete. And since they would be paid for their work, there would be the option of termination. How fucked would it be for a kid to receive a full ride athletic scholarship to a university and lose that scholarship simply because the university no longer feels like honoring their commitment?

When was the last time they had their collar bones broken, knees torn, spines crack, concussion's concussioned?
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Aye man, I know all too well the harms of physical sports. My friend almost died from a concussion (no shit) and I'm currently recovering from a triple injury. Fans of sport don't really understand the physical demands of football. It's definitely not an easy sport.

BeautyinBaltimore said...

I'm not a sports fan but I think they should. A free education is good(If you have time to study)but money is great. Football is to much of a physically demanding sport for the players to not get some monitary compensation.

M.dot school is killing. I don't know how you are able to blog as often as you do.

M.Dot. said...

M.dot school is killing. I don't know how you are able to blog as often as you do.
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Trust me very, very carefully.

I sketch out blog posts on the bus.

I send my self links at work.

Make outlines in my head.

A WHOLE lot of pre planning occurs.

No, school now...gainfully employed tho...50 hrs a week. Still.Same time constraints.

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