The NCAA is a non-profit organization with tax exempt status that governs and administers all Div I, I-AA, II, and III college athletic programs in the United States. As its mission states, “THE NCAA’s CORE PURPOSE IS TO govern competition in a fair, safe, equitable and sportsmanlike manner, and to integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education so that the educational experience of the student-athlete is paramount.”
It was founded in 1906 to protect young people from the dangerous and exploitive athletics practices . Over a century later, it has morphed into a $757 million dollar revenue-producing business annually that administers and governs the multi-billion dollar revenue-producing enterprise of college athletics.
HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” recently did a special report on the NCAA to investigate the manner in which they run their organization. Several staggering financial facts were revealed. First, it revealed that the latest tax filings for the NCAA in 2009 shows a top tier of 14 executives making an average salary of over $425,000 annually. Secondly, while both the NFL and NBA player associations have agreements for their athletes to receive 57% of all revenues, the NCAA hasn’t even considered the creation of a similar policy.
For example, from 2005-2008, the University of Alabama Div. I football program generated 125 million dollars in revenue. If a similar agreement were put in place for college athletes, the Alabama football players would stand to make $500,000 in annual salary and roughly 2 million dollars over the duration of their careers. A staggering figure that is still nevertheless dwarfed by the current annual salary of their head football coach, Nick Saban, who makes over 2 million dollars per season.
So, with all the revenue being generated, shouldn’t college athletes be entitled to some form of profit or revenue sharing?
Most have seen the latest public service announcement of the NCAA, which matter-of-factly plays on the stereotype that all athletes are nothing more than a collective of physically fit and mentally inferior folks, by questioning their audience if they “still think we’re just a bunch of dumb jocks?” This perspective is intriguing, given the fact that the NCAA treats athletes just like a group of dumb jocks who are too stupid to recognize the massive amount of dollars that are being created from their activities. While no one in the NCAA directly participates in the events that actually generate these astronomical amounts of revenue, their executives don’t care because, after all, the dumb jocks will never realize what’s going into our pockets and not into their’s.
The college athlete is the true employee of the NCAA enterprise. They are the dedicated souls that rise at the crack of dawn in an effort to prepare for upcoming seasons, the large majority of which don’t even have enough money to buy themselves a meal after their workouts. Their minds are oftentimes weary and their bodies typically hurt from the constant stress and strain, yet they remain dedicated to furthering “the win at all costs” agenda that is shared by their coaches, university administrators, and alumni, all in an effort just to keep their scholarship and stay in school.
The regimen of the college athlete never stops, it just continues, as they are forced to train and train and train, workout after workout after workout, while the NCAA administers and governs from their executive offices and their coaches scream and yell from the sidelines. Don’t get me wrong–I completely agree with the existence and purpose of the NCAA. Without it, unethical activities involving college athletes would probably grow exponentially. Yet, for it to become nearly a billion dollar enterprise without their staff becoming direct participants, while athletes, the “true” employees, many of which who come from disadvantaged, impoverished neighborhoods, aren’t paid a single penny, is corrupt and perhaps borderline criminal.
How can the blood, sweat, and tears of athletes equate to billions for another and absolutely nothing for themselves? Yes, these athletes do receive free tuition, room, and board, but this pales in comparison to what the NCAA, colleges, universities, coaches and staff all receive.
If an NCAA executive can make nearly half a million, a coach can make 2 million plus annually, and universities can make billions, why shouldn’t their be a policy in place that mandates some form of revenue sharing with athletes? It’s as if only the privileged few are allowed to further their wealth while the disadvantaged thousands remain just that–financially disadvantaged–with no other option than to train harder, jump higher, and run faster.
If I was fortunate enough to be a part of “the privileged few,” after its all said and done and I was on my deathbed awaiting the afterlife, I’d be pretty nervous about whether or not the Man Upstairs would permit me to walk through His pearly gates!
Modern Intelligentsia 