Johnny “Football” Manziel and Jadaveon Clowney. Two household names that any sports fan knows, and two guys that don’t get paid despite headlining SportsCenter just as much as professional athletes. Along with many other college superstars, these guys bring in millions for their universities each year via ticket and jersey sales, along with national television exposure. For all the revenue these college athletes bring in, shouldn’t they start being paid?
That’s what NCAA president Mark Emmert had in mind back in 2011 when he supported a proposal to allow conferences to pay their student-athletes $2,000 a semester. Since then, some have called for even higher salaries for college athletes. The proposal has even garnered the support of some big names, including ESPN’s Mike Wilbon. Sorry Mike, but you are mistaken.
Even as a track athlete here at the University, I completely reject the idea. Sure, I would love to get two grand a semester, but I don’t see how I am deserving of it. I like to think that I already receive a lot of benefits as a scholarship athlete.
The number one thing: a free education. Many athletes don’t even have to live up to the academic standards of their classmates in gaining admission to schools across the country. The University is a great example of this — an accomplished high school prospect can attend the top public school in the country for free without actually having the grades to get in. Isn’t that enough of a blessing?
No? Well, the benefits don’t stop there for University athletes. We have this magical thing called the “Opportunity Fund.” Each year, we are allowed to spend $500 on clothes, $300 on school supplies and $300 on medical items — and so long as we turn in the receipts, we get that money back. And schools supplies doesn’t even count textbooks — which some of us get free of charge as well. So when we ask ourselves if college athletes should be paid, it is important to remember they already receive benefits far and above what their non-athlete classmates typically receive.
As far as the original proposal goes, it would have all scholarship athletes receive the same amount. This is a huge problem. With this system, I would potentially receive just as much money as Johnny Football. I don’t bring in anything close to the amount of earnings he does. No athlete from any sport other than football or basketball does.
Wilbon’s solution is to base the payment on performance or revenue generated. But who would judge our performance, and what arbitrary lines would be drawn to divvy up earnings? The whole idea just screams trouble. Not getting paid is what keeps us athletes somewhat level-headed — walking around Grounds in all my team-issued gear already instills a sense of confidence.
If you start paying a superstar student-athlete too much, then the big man on campus will become even more headstrong — he becomes a walking celebrity, more so than he already is.
And can we really trust college athletes to spend a salary responsibly? I think some can, but certainly not all of us. At the University, what would we even spend it on? We have the free education, free meal plans, money to spend on clothes and school supplies, free gear, free tutors and no co-pay when we go into the doctor’s office. We have everything we need and then some. Planting all this extra money into a student-athlete’s pocket would not end up well.
In a college environment riddled with alcohol, drugs and frat parties, giving student-athletes with few traditional expenses a huge salary will inevitably lead to poor decisions. Even professional athletes sometimes can’t handle themselves properly. We see their scandals and controversies on ESPN all the time. What leads us to believe that college athletes won’t abuse this money as well? Nothing, nothing at all.
To add to the mess, it is not even possible to tie salaries directly to revenue brought to the university. Title IX requires equal benefits for men’s and women’s sports teams in the NCAA. If you want to pay men’s college basketball athletes because they generate $11 billion during March Madness, you’d better start distributing that across the women’s sports before you commit an NCAA violation.
And on a principled level, paying female athletes less and marginalizing athletes in less popular sports just doesn’t seem to live up to our American ideals of equality and fairness. There is no good solution.
If you still feel bad for the superstar athletes out there that get no money in return, look at it this way. Kobe Bryant now makes $281,000 a game. There are 82 games in a season which puts him at roughly $23 million a year — in addition to bonuses or endorsements. Had he opted to go college, you really think he needed that extra $2,000 a year? The superstar athletes will eventually get their money, and they will get a lot of it.
Second-year College student Cody Snyder is a varsity athlete on the men’s track and field team.
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