Sports & Academics: Partners in the 19th Century - Research Paper

Introduction

Sports and academics have for long been synergistically involved, with either side seen as an avenue to promote the other. Academic institutions, therefore, regarded sports as an integral part of their activities, as well as a form of revenue attraction. The 19th century valued sports as a way that they accrue sponsorships from various sponsors, and this was seen in the 1800s regatta between Harvard and Yale. To impress the regatta sponsors Elkins Railroad, Harvard University used a non-student to compete favorably. The outcomes of these competitions and others like them lead to the death of 45 students, and this hence led to the formulation of the intercollegiate athletic association in 1906, which later came to be the national collegiate athletic association (NCAA) (Johnson & Acquaviva, 2012). At this particular time, the athletes within colleges were recruited for a payment every time they played, and this extrapolated further the issue of non-students competing in matches. The sanity code of 1948, however, limited the financial aid and payments to the athletes to tuition and fees, and this was granted depending on the need of the student. Later on, this was modified to include other living stipends for the athletes. NCAA underwent metamorphosis after the passing of Title IX, and it hence incorporated the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) as part of its jurisdiction. The membership for NCAA expanded to around 1,300 institutions, with over 400,000 student-athletes, and the question that still emerges from all over America is, should the student-athletes get paid for the job they do for their institutions?

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Fiscal Matters in NCAA

College athletics is evolving to be a multimillion-dollar venture, and this revenue is primarily attained from TV revenue, merchandising ticket sales, and support from alumni. An institution that cannot raise these revenues obtains their financial support from the academic funds. In 2015 for instance, Oregon has reported the most profitable institution as it accrued a profit of $83.5 million with a revenue of $196 million and expenses amounting to $110.4 million (Wojtys, 2016). March madness accrues a revenue of $800 million and betting from fans accrues $9 million (Davis, 2015). The 2018 revenue for NCAA was $1,064,403,240 (NCAA, 2018). These revenues are often distributed in various expenses, among them the renovation or construction of stadia, the payment of staff as well as the funding of championships. Auburn, for instance, spent $13.9 million on the installation of a high-definition video board 11,000-square foot in size. Coaches and staff within the NCAA take approximately 30% of the revenues, with some high paid coaches such as Duke's Coach Krzyzewski getting an annual payment of $9.7 million and 35 others having a seven-figure pay (Davis, 2015). The production of division 1 championships took $85 million, $194 million was taken by support funding. Student assistance fund was $75.6 million and $26.1 million incorporated in the NCAA's academic fund (NCAA, 2016). Even after all these genuine and in some cases controversial expenditures, the NCAA still retains a handsome pay in profits, and this leaves the welfare of the athletes in question.

The Plight of Athletes

Athletes have been minutely presented in the various balance sheets and financial statistics of the NCAA. Apart from the academic funds, and the student assistance fund, the athletes are entitled to a stipend amounting to around $3000 per athlete in the academic year (Wojtys, 2016). These athletes have also been granted an opportunity to advance to a professional level, and at the same time, succeed in attaining a college degree. However, with such under-recognitions from the NCAA, most of the athletes fail to achieve a college degree as they often tend to drop out of the NCAA agreement and go professional. Others usually incur injuries from the collegiate matches and hence limit their abilities to go professional, or even attain the college degree at the end of it all. The academic priorities within these colleges are often under question as most of the athletes time is dedicated to athletics rather than in academics. Some instances force these institutions to diverge the funds meant for academics into funding championships, payment of salaries, and other expenses. The athletes are often in need of financial support that exceeds the handouts they receive. They need medical coverage that the NCAA cannot provide. Therefore, it is only fair that these athletes are included in some form of payment schedules that will take care of their professional, personal, and academic expenses.

Justification Against Payment of Athletes

The NCAA has since its inception abode by the amateurism rule that regarded the athletes as students first and athletes second. Therefore, by limiting the financial aspect and cutting off the professionalism of athletics, the NCAA was guaranteed an ample academic environment for these athletes. Amateurism within this premise hence prohibits the athletes from making contracts with professional athletic teams, as well as from accruing any salaries from their participation in sports. From the set necessary expenses provided by the NCAA, the athletes are not entitled to any other prizes above the already mentioned ones. The student-athletes are also banned from representation by agents, tryouts, compete with professional teams, or delayed enrollment in full-time collegiate participation in competitions (Thacker, 2017). The bylaw 12.5.2 of the NCA similarly prohibited the student-athlete from using their picture or name for endorsement deals and this hence limited their profiting from their personalities as athletes. NCAA has equally been in agreement with the Title IX that demanded athletic scholarships. Many who argue against the payment of the student-athletes cite education as the best payment that the institutions could grant them. The world beyond these institutions is a tough one, and many of these athletes do not get a chance to pursue their talents as professionals. Therefore, the academic degrees they attain from these schools is a head start for them to pick up the pieces of their lives and start as professions in the different areas of their specializations. Another argument that has been brought concerning the payment of these athletes is the lack of fair ways to compensate them. Various institutions offer numerous sports to students of different abilities, genders, skills, and socio-economic status. Some of these institutions are also limited financially. Therefore, it is challenging to come up with payment terms and modes that would be fair to every athlete within these institutions.

Athletes Should Be Paid

Title IX entitles every student an equal opportunity at sports, and this is one violation that the NCAA amateurism commits against the athletes. Aside from these, they are also kept away from the benefits they accrue for the institutions by being locked out from the financial profits. Many of these athletes come from poor backgrounds and have to struggle with a lot of financial constraints that cannot be satisfied by the scholarships and merger handouts they receive from the institutions. Some of them lack basic life requirements such as food once in a while, and therefore, it is only fair that they are entitled to salaries. A majority of cases have been presented to the different levels of courts within the United States to refute the amateurism policy of NCAA and hence entitle athletes to salaries and other rewards. However, these cases have been won by the NCAA, leaving the players in anguish. The National Labor Relations Boards has been particularly resourceful to the NCAA. In the NLRB v. Northwestern University case, players at the northwestern university had moved to NRB to challenge their unpaid work in the university. However, the NLRB dismissed this petition by denying them jurisdiction (Rosenthal, 2017). Lots of arguments have been put across concerning the status of the athletes as employees, and this hence brings the current debate that categorizes the student-athletes as employees. The fair labor standards act requires every employer to entitle their employees to a minimal statute wage, as well as forbids them from employing their employees for more than 40 hours weekly unless they are entitled to overtime payments. The determination of the student-athlete as employees or not can be done by the totality of the circumstances tenet within the FLSA.

How to Pay Athletes Fairly

Athletes and institutions that violate the NCAA are always subject to fines, punishments, forfeitures of goods, and suspensions. However, these actions, coupled with the exploitations they have been subjected to are unfair and redundant. There is no specific evidence that linked external gains, and compensations will have detrimental impacts on the student-athlete. The college integrity of the student-athlete is also not at stake, and this hence justifies the compensation of the student-athletes (Zema, 2019). Paying the athletes has thus been the argument by many. However, even by endorsing payments, there are certain aspects of the payments that will yield unfairness. The financial benefits only target those who indulge in basketball and football, and this hence marginalizes the female athletes as well as other males who indulge in other sports (Chait, 2018). Therefore, ways must be formulated to create payment terms that will benefit all the athletes within these institutions. Among them is the introduction of student stipends to ensure that all the athletes are paid equally, depending on their effort rather than the masses or crowds they attract to their games. Scholarships have been the accepted form of compensation for the athletes. However some of the students are terminated from the scholarship once they prove unforthcoming. Therefore, ensuring a five-year full scholarship will ensure fairness. The introduction of a salary cap could also be helpful in this case. Nocera (2016) of the New York Times suggests a salary cap of $650,000 for basketball players and $3million for football. Even within the professional world, such margins in payments exists, and therefore, this guarantees fairness in a way. Unions grant players a voice and thus, allowing the student-athletes to form unions will be a beginning of their welfare.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the integration of sport and academics more so in college has brought about conflicts between the student-athletes and the NCAA. The former has often felt manipulated and exploited by the latter due to their limited financial benefits from the millions of dollars they make for their institutions. However, the latter has felt that education through sponsorships is the ideal form of compensation and that by limiting the involvement of the students in professional teams, they are protecting their academic integrity. The recent economic situation around the United States has, however, demanded finances from the players that exceed the handouts they get from their institutions. Others who have failed to match the expectations of their coaches and institutors have even lost their scholarships. Therefore, to promote equality, there have to be forms of payments and appreciations such as salary caps, guaranteed sponsorships, equitable stipends, and the formation of unions to safeguard their financial matters.

References

Chait J. (2018, march 31). How to Pay College Athletes without Ruining NCAA Sports. Intelligencer. Retrieve from http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/03/how-to-pay-college-athletes-without-ruining-ncaa-sports.html

Davis O. March Madness (2015, march 18) Getting to the NCAA finals costs a lot, but the rewards for most are slim. International Business Times. http:...