piece of the pie

Piece of the Pie Money is an important issue for almost all college
students. Very few are lucky enough not to have the financial burdens of
tuition, housing, and food interfere with their academic initiatives. Some
students have parents that are wealthy enough to cover all of the costs of
college. Other students are given financial aid from the university that
they attend. If necessary, students can get jobs to help differ the costs.
There are no restrictions put on most students as to where they can work,
or how much they can earn. Most students have this freedom, but varsity
athletes with scholarships attending Division I schools do not. The
National Collegiate Athletic Association, the governing body of collegiate
athletics, restricts these athletes from having jobs. Even though these
athletes would have a hard time make room for a job between practices,
meetings and games, they are not even given the opportunity to do so
because of the NCAA regulations. These regulations are based on the
fear that athletes could be employed by affiliates of the university, who
could attract the best athletes by unjustifiably paying them extraordinary
salaries. While this may be a valid concern, the regulations are most
often carried out to ridiculous lengths which ultimately do not serve the
purpose they are intended to have. For example, Northwestern University
has an aspiring young actor named Darnell Autry who also happens to be
the starting running back for the University's football team. Darnell was
offered a role, based entirely on his acting abilities, in a major network's
sitcom. The NCAA nearly forbid him from accepting this offer based on
the regulations against athlete employment. Darnell was eventually
allowed to accept the job, however, the NCAA did not allow him to get
paid for his work. They reasoned that the cost of the flight out of Chicago
was payment enough for Darnell. As in Darnell's case, the regulations
cause more problems then they prevent.The prospect of the money
waiting for many athletes, like Darnell, when they leave college, leads
them to abandon their education and head straight for the professional
leagues. Some athletes, like Shawn Kemp or Kobe Bryant, skip college

entirely. Kemp and Bryant both went directly from high school to the
National Basketball Association, and are currently making millions of
dollars a year. Other athletes, such as Stephon Marbury, Allen Iverson,
Marcus Camby, Terry Glen, and Tim Biakabatuka, all college
phenomenons from basketball and football, skip as many as three of their
remaining college years. The lure of fame and fortune is making more
and more athletes leave college early each year. Even those that stand a
slim chance of ever becoming professionals cannot resist the temptation
to leave. These athletes often end up without the million dollar contracts,
and more importantly, without college degrees to fall back on. The
pressure these athletes feel from being so financially limited by NCAA
regulations also makes them consider leaving early. Many of these
athletes' families would not be able to pay for college costs were it not for
their scholarships their sons and daughters receive. Such athletes are
hard pressed to ask their parents for extra money for the costs not
covered by scholarships. These scholarship athletes are put at a great
disadvantage because, unlike other students at any given university,
including those on academic scholarships, the athletes are not allowed to
have jobs to earn the extra money they need.The idea of leaving college
early almost seems honorable in contrast to some other temptations to
which college athletes may succumb. In the past few years the NCAA has
seen many incidents involving player infractions of regulations. In one
particular scandal, members of the Florida State football team were
caught with illegal gifts from Foot Locker, provided by a corrupt agent.
Florida State is not the only University with such problems. The University
of Miami, and Auburn have been two notoriously corrupt athletic
programs. Such situations are all to common, as officials on every level
seem to look the other way. Their students are enticed further and further
by the temptation of money, until the universities are investigated by the
NCAA. This an example of how the NCAA regulations create an

environment where the athletes can give way to the extra pressures
placed upon them. The pressure they feel often leads them to cross the
line between what is legal and illegal according to the NCAA, as in the
Florida State Foot Locker scandal. Since they are not usually caught, and
even when they are the penalties are not very severe, it should then
come as no surprise that sometimes this line is blurred to the point that
more serious crimes are committed. The athletes begin to feel as if they
are above the NCAA laws. This attitude is even more harmful when it
carries over to the laws enforced by the police. For example, Lawrence
Philips, a star running back from the University of Nebraska, was arrested
for harassing his girlfriend. He was not even kicked off of team, and is
now making millions of dollars playing in the National Football League.
The players actions are obviously not justified, but the NCAA should try to
modify its regulations so as to prevent these situations from
occurring.The NCAA regulations are not unfounded. However, they are
unreasonable. Instead of restricting their athletes from having all jobs, for
fear of unregulated corruption, why not regulate a job they have already?
Why not pay the athletes for the "work" they do for the university? If the
NCAA gave these athletes a modest salary, something equivalent to what
they could get paid at any other university job, were they allowed to have
one, they would feel much less pressure, and temptation. Most people
object to the idea of paying the players because of the competition it
would foster within the team. Who would decide how much each player
receives? Another issue this question raises is of the projection to high
school seniors deciding where to attend college. Would starting salaries,
not educational opportunities, become their priority in deciding where to
attend?These problems would be easily eliminated by standardizing the
salary across Division I sports. It would not be impractical to devise a
scheme based on the hours a player spends a week and a moderate
wage to provide a moderate income for these players. For example,

suppose an athlete spends 25 hours a week on his or her sport. A 10
dollar an hour wage would yield 250 dollars a week; the same amount he
or she might make at any other job. Assuming there are no more than a
few hundred scholarship athletes, the cost would be a fraction of what
most Division I schools make each week from one football game's ticket
revenues alone. Furthermore, since the salaries would be standardized,
there would be no competition between team members, and schools
would not feel pressured to offer recruits the highest salaries.Others may
argue against paying athletes because the scholarships should be
enough payment. The are receiving a free education and should be
grateful for it. Furthermore, paying student athletes would only cloud their
purpose at the University, enforcing the idea that the only way they will
make money is through sports. The athletes would feel less like students
because both the coaches and the athletes would find it harder to keep
academics as the number one priority. The fact that many argue that
scholarship should be enough payment for athletes illustrates the
paradoxical nature of the current situation. The Division I schools
acknowledge that outstanding high school athletes should be rewarded,
and they give such athletes scholarships. However, a scholarship is not
always a reward for an athlete. Many of the scholarship athletes would
not be able to attend college if it were not for their scholarships. By
admittance being contingent upon athletic scholarship, the athletes
priorities become clouded. Are they a student first and an athlete second,
or vice versa? If a scholarship athlete stops participating in his or her
sport, he or she can no longer be a student. They cannot be a student,
without being an athlete first. The problem of priorities is compounded
further by the innate conflicts that arise between the academic calendar
and athletic events. The conflict between being a student and being an
athlete comes directly into play whenever an athlete has team
commitments, upon which there scholarship depends, during classes.

Should he or she travel to the away game and miss classes, or skip the
game and study? These conflicts are so complicated that they may not
even be solved by paying athletes a salary. A scholarship, for an athlete
who could not otherwise attend a university can often be a "lose-lose"
situation: the athlete cannot be a dedicated student if he or she has to put
all the time an effort in to sport, but the athlete has to be an athlete first
before he or she can be a student. The added pressures that result from
the NCAA regulations make it even harder on these athletes. While
salaries may not clarify the priorities for a scholarship athlete, they would
at least make being a student a more reasonable and manageable
choice. By treating Division I sports like a job, the athlete's role might be
made clearer.It is accepted on the professional level that sports are a
business, and therefore, an athletes job. On the surface, championships
seem to be the main goal for most athletic teams. However, in a move
that devastated some of the most loyal fans in football, this year the
Cleveland Browns left the city of Cleveland and became the Baltimore
Ravens. The Cleveland Browns had a long history and a rich tradition.
Nevertheless the material motivations of their owner, Art Modell, took
precedence, and illustrated that the most important goal is actually
maximizing profit. On the professional level, the revenue is reflecting in
the large salaries of the players. College players, however, see none of
this money and can only watch from a distance and yearn for the day
they too will get their share of the millions. The money generated from
ticket sales, television contracts, commercials, clothing and other
paraphernalia is astounding. At the college level revenue often funds the
university and its other athletic programs. College players, despite being
part of the same exact "business" as the professionals, do not share the
same recognition. They should receive money for their work, just as any
other student does for any other job. It is time for the NCAA and the
Division I schools to re-evaluate the current state of there athletic policies.

Every year more students leave college early, without a degree, for the
sole reason of money. Every year an athletic program is investigated, put
on probation or suspended due to violations of NCAA regulations. Above
all, athletes priorities are left in limbo between academics and athletics.
By giving the athletes salaries, the NCAA could maintain control over the
fraudulent jobs that the regulations were intended to prevent, and make it
easier for these athletes to stay in college and be students.