Fray Martinez

    Did you know the average annual salary of a head coach in collegiate sports is around 2.67 million dollars while the players are playing in the college off a scholarship that only pays for tuition etc. but not the sport itself? Crazy right? 

Many student athletes that play division III, division II, and division I sports are risking a lot more than people think trying to play professionally and sadly that dream doesn’t come true 100% of the time. 

Many athletes that are recruited to play sports at a collegiate level are coming from low income neighborhoods and are essentially poor and are playing sports to help grow and make it to the  professional level. To help support their families and change their lives, but sometimes come short because of things that  end their career. 

Personally I am a basketball fan and have been since elementary school, and one thing that made me passionate about this issue was the James Wisemen situation which corrupted his eligibility to play for the college he was playing for due to financial help he was receiving from someone. I think it is fair that college athletes be allowed to make endorsement deals and profit off their name.

College sports money is the majority of the time not used for the students’ benefits. It should not be illegal for college athletes to make money off of their names since colleges seem to strive off of their players. It’s unfair that the players aren’t allowed to make money unless they want to forfeit their right to play.

“Coaches receive salaries that are unfair compared to what teachers and professors with advanced degrees earn, according to essay samples on the topic. Some coaches receive millions of dollars a year and student athletes receive nothing, even if there’s plenty of money going around.”(collegesportmadness.com, 2020). The money distribution that the sport department has is flawed and there is plenty of money to go around especially with big named colleges who are unfairly paying the sport department compared to professors and teachers who have a much higher degree than them. 

Some may say that scholarships aren’t nothing to these athletes getting full rides etc. but one must take into consideration that these kids come from poorer backgrounds and may not have funds to pay for team expenses which may ultimately hurt them since they may not make it professionally. 

Brennan Thomas, a sport reporter for Bleacher report says just that stating, “The scholarship covers most of the expenses, but some estimated that actual costs of living are $1,500 more than covered. Since most will never play a sport professionally, they actually accumulate debt in school.” (Thomas, 2011). The money can go to better use for the students and help them in the long term, rather than giving coaches and athletic staff vacations with their salaries. 

Student athletes that are playing for their sports team typically cannot work full time jobs because they put in almost 40 hours a week into the sport in college. Even though the NCAA has regulations that the athletes spend no more than 20 hours a week dedicated to sports doesn’t mean people follow it. There were lawsuits being thrown around about athletes working 40+ hours a week dedicated to sports, such as UNC in 2014 for that exact reason. 

Who’s to say this does not occur often with many division II and division I sport teams? The amount of hours these  athletes have to put into their sports (which is 20+ regulated) and also academically which can be up to 40+ hours a week they have no time to get jobs even if they wanted to. Justin Reyes a Greenville University reporter states “Without putting intense working hours, a student athlete cannot remain on the team or keep his scholarship.” (Reyes, 2015). Many people brush off the fact that these college athletes are in fact student athletes and in order to keep their scholarships and or their spot on the team they must bring in exceptional grades.

 Now I’m not saying that they need to be compensated for academic’s because that would be absurd, but imagine putting countless hours into a sport that  you have potential to go professional in, but cant manage to balance the academic and sport life so you just lose everything all together. Brennan explains this by stating “Another important factor is that many of the athletes come from poor backgrounds. To add insult to injury, it is illegal to work a job during the year. This creates a situation where the athletes are faced with a dilemma between taking money and accumulating debts.” (Thomas, 2015). As I said before, these athletes being recruited are coming from poorer backgrounds and they are trying too hard to go professional. 

If they do one thing wrong they lose it all. A great example is AJ Green and Terrelle Pryor. Both prodigies on the football field, sold memorabilia for relatively small amounts of money. Because of this Green missed the first four games of the 2010 season, and Pryor missed the first five games of next year. Both come from poorer backgrounds. Both bring a ton of money into their respective universities, and yet are desperate for money. This is exactly why if players were able to get endorsements or profit off their name while in college this wouldn’t be an issue. 

As devastating as it may sound, college athletes’ careers may end in a short run due to injury or something that has occurred in their life. This sadly can affect their future on a big opportunity to help their families out. Nothing is promised and nobody knows what can happen, these sports are contact sports and injuries can happen and sometimes it can be career ending which leaves any opportunity they might have had down the drain to go professional. I am touching on this because it is very much possible for a 5 star athlete’s career to go down the drain.

College sports are sometimes so shallow and drop players knowing it won’t help the college and just forget about the player. One great example is the Zion Williamson injury scare. This injury scare happened in 2019 when Zion Williamson was playing in DUKE because was not eligible to play professionally since he has to go to college for at least one year. He was playing a rival team; it was known as a big rival game against UNC. The game had just started and within the first 22 seconds of the game Zions shoe had ripped and he suffered a minor knee injury. Zion was projected to be the #1 overall pick in the NBA. USA Today For the Win states, “Zion Williamson should never play a minute of college basketball again”. These are a few of the ESPN and sport analysts saying he should stop playing to prevent a career ending injury from occurring and make all his dreams crumble. 

Basketball isn’t the only sport that  this occurs in, it is also being seen in football. Trevor Lawrence, a Clemson Quarterback had a very similar situation because he wasn’t eligible for the NFL draft until 2021. Some college football players who have skipped bowl games to assure their health ahead of the NFL draft. 

Now we have to ask ourselves will this start happening in basketball too? Scottie Pippen, an NBA Hall of Famer stated ‘I would stop playing because I feel that he could risk a major injury that could really hurt his career”. Another Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady stated “If i’m top 3, im outta there”. These are prime examples of how fragile a spot in a professional sport is and players would get that by any means possible.

Jasmine Harris, an Assistant Professor at Ursinus College, recorded that with only 65 schools out of the 2078 in the NCAA which is equivalent to  less than 3% of the schools made a revenue of $7.6 billion. (Harris, 2019). With the amount of money less than 3% of all NCAA schools are making alone is enough to compensate these student athletes  to help them with their sport and academic life.

California made the Fair to Play Act which is an act that allows players playing sports in college to make endorsement deals and profit from their name. If this act was to be passed throughout all of the NCAA colleges not only in California this would spark change and overall, making collegiate sports great again not only for the college, and audience, but for the players as well. These players make the college well known, make profit for their team, and yet get not share of the wealth but some publicity. What  good is that publicity when you can’t make money off of it, when it can be taken away in an instant. Instead you may accumulate debt, bust your behind on and off the court because of sports and academics and not even make it professionally. There are countless petitions that we can sign that will help ensure that these college athletes are not left empty handed. California started with the Fair to Play act, but we can go even further to make that act go beyond California colleges. The National College Player Association is doing just that as they are constantly trying to make college players’ lives easier by making petitions to help these collegiate sport level players get compensated and make money off of their name. They advocate for football basketball, and any NCAA college really. We can make a change by signing these petitions and helping out these college sport players with their future whether or not they make it professional or not.