College athletes need to be paid
COMMENTARY
By Will Brown

College football has long been the leading contributor of NCAA revenue, helping the governing body to amass some $331,713,818 in operating revenue for the 2000-2001 fiscal year alone. It is also usually the top donor to the athletic departments of most universities, and keeps many of the non-revenue sports afloat.

Schools seem to thrive on the support of various businesses and corporations throughout the community who give millions of dollars to be associated with the program. Everyone who puts their hands out seems to benefit; everyone except the very people who burden the workload. In our capitalist society, it does not matter how hard college football players work; the honest players will never see a dime.

Playing in the NFL is clearly the goal of many college football players. The colleges are just as clearly the minor league for the NFL. The players realize that universities have a monopoly on high-level football for men in their late teens and early 20s and that they have nowhere else to give their service. There must be something done to stop the non-payment and subsequent abuse of socially powerless athletes, and there is little reason why schools can’t give players a small monthly stipend of some sort.

Many people defend the universities and the system by pointing out that they are giving these athletes a rare opportunity, a free education, and a foundation for life. Of course, this is easy for universities because they are dealing out assets they already have in abundance: room, board, books and a spot in the classroom.

College athletes aren’t blind to what is going on. They see the full stands, the TV cameras, the souvenirs, the rich alumni and the cash registers. When a player gets caught accepting money or signing early with an agent, or especially leaving school early to turn professional, people are horrified.

Instead, people should realize that the “laws” an athlete may break aren’t laws at all. The rules of the NCAA exist only to protect the profit structure of college and professional football. It only makes sense for a football player who had no interest in going to school but to play football to leave at the first chance he gets to begin to make money. Even so, people act as if that person has lost all morals and that his school has done a horrible job.

Such tales are not uncommon. The leading rusher in the PAC-10 during the 2001 season was declared ineligible in early November for violating the NCAA “extra benefits” rule. Running back DeShaun Foster of UCLA was believed to be driving a sport utility vehicle leased by one of the school’s alumni and was put on probation by the school. He expressed his unhappiness with the decision of the NCAA, but nevertheless, was drafted early in the second round of the 2002 Draft and eventually signed a $5 million contract with the Carolina Panthers.

In 1997, Penn State’s All-American running back Curtis Enis was kicked off the team before its Citrus Bowl appearance for illegally accepting a $375 suit and a $75 shirt from an agent to wear at an awards show. How exactly are these players supposed to afford decent clothes if they have to spend all their time on football and not getting a job? Enis ended up the fifth overall selection in the 1998 NFL Draft.

Why cannot athletes be paid some sort of salary? If a big-time bowl game brings in millions dollars to an athletic department, why cannot the department give each of the players a few grand? The legendary Nebraska coach and current senator, Tom Osbourne, said, “We’re progressively asking more and more of our players and giving them less and less in return. I hope that if something is done, some compensation could be given to the players.”

Something must be done in our institutions to put a stop to the universities who are driven to do whatever it takes to win and make money on the backs of free laborers. Athletes who make a profit for their school should be entitled to receive a small share of the money they work for. Maybe those athletes who struggle to get buy on whatever money they can scrape together can agree.

Will Brown is a junior health fitness major from Waco.