- Division 2 athletes scrape by, while NCAA powers cash in - August 2, 2018
Should college athletes get paid? This question has been circulating within collegiate athletic ranks for decades.
“It’s only fair,’ said Sydney Chase, a shooting guard for Notre Dame de Namur University, a not-for-profit Catholic university in Belmont, California.
“Most of the athletes have less money than ‘normal’ students and face additional burdens,’ Chase said. “Non-athletes think athletes have everything made, but in reality they don’t. Athletes miss school for weeks and can not work because the sport is basically their job whereas, non-athletes can attend class regularly and even have a job for income.’
Amateur athletics at the major college level is big business, according to the Institute of Sports Law and Ethics, a policy group affiliated with Santa Clara University’s Law School. It is marketed, packaged and sold in the same way as many other commercial products. Between 1981 to 2013, revenues from the NCAA basketball tournament grew from alone have grown from $9 million to $750 million. Several news outlets have reported this year’s NCAA basketball tournament revenues topped $1 billion.
The question of whether collegiate athletes deserve to be paid isn’t new.
In 1950, the NCAA President Walter Byers stated that NCAA athletes could be subjected as employees by state industrial commissions and the courts. Being identified as an employee would give NCAA athletes rights such as workers, compensation, unionization, and wages. Athletic scholarships have represented a form of pay-for-pay that has avoided unionization and wages for the college athletes. Nevertheless, the NCAA prohibits payments beyond educational scholarships and specified expenses to the athletes who are responsible for producing those revenues.
NCAA rules also restrict the ability of college-athletes to earn outside income. In a study sponsored by the NCAA, football and basketball players reported having less money available after expenses than non-athlete students. Almost 58 percent say the money they have is inadequate. Many students are not even provided the education that is promised to them.
Taylor Bates, a point guard at Notre Dame de Namur, knows where he stands. “Athletes should be paid. It’s not their choice to miss class or be broke. We can not have a job because the sport is our job. Between classes, practices, weight training, there is simply no time in the day for a regular job.’