By AUSTIN UNGLAUB
The National Collegiate Athletic Association or NCAA for short is an absolute dream for younger athletes to one day compete in. According to ncaa.org, only six percent of high school athletes are fortunate enough to play in the NCAA. It is truly a great accomplishment to have this opportunity. However, these athletes aren’t always treated fairly.
According to a Huffington Post article, the NCAA made $989 million in its 2014 fiscal year. And how are they making all of this money? The clear cut answer is the athletes. They constantly promote these athletes left and right. They make them the face of the school, on billboards across the country, and in commercials that run daily. The NCAA has made their own rules and regulations where they can continuously get away with this year after year.
Thomas Ruddy, a senior, who plays division one baseball at Yale University said, “free education is offered for a chance to represent your school and chance to play professionally in the future. Yet, athletes are paid nothing while performing, some of which generating millions of dollars for their programs.”
A study conducted by Drexel University found that the average division one football player brings in just over $137,000 for their program each year. As for division one basketball, they bring in just under $290,000 per player, per year. In return, these athletes are compensated by only receiving an average of $23,204 a year in scholarship money. It is clear that these numbers are so off and far from being fair to student-athletes.
Paying players can help with one and done rule
In college basketball, everyone is aware of the one and done rule. This rule allows student-athletes to attend one academic year at their school before being able to enter the NBA draft. Every other sport requires athletes to stay in school for a minimum of six semesters before entering the draft for your respective sport. The main reason that basketball players are leaving is simply for money. For example, Lonzo Ball, who was the most hyped player in the 2017 NBA draft was chosen number two overall.
He signed his five-year-contract that will pay him $47,831,557 over that time. That is a no brainer that you are going to leave college to go to the NBA. Obviously the NCAA won’t pay their athletes that type of money, but if they received enough money to enjoy the lifestyle they deserve in college, then maybe they will rethink their decision to leave college early.
What can be done to help these student-athletes
“In the NBA, players receive 50% of all revenue, and in the NFL players receive 46.5% of all revenue,” Ruddy said. “I think that the NCAA should adopt this mentality as a starting point.”
This would certainly be an interesting start if the NCAA decides to pay their student-athletes. Being a student-athlete is a full-time job. They are either in class or working on homework, or at practice or other sport-related events. With that being said it is not reasonable to expect these student-athletes to go out and get part-time jobs, their jobs are their sport and they need to be paid for that.
You’ve got great sources, good pictures and plenty of sub-heads, nice job. The only advice I’d give is to touch up the few sentences that have weird wording in them, such as the end of the first quote in the article where it says “some of which generating millions of dollars for their programs.” Feels a bit awkward to read.
But yeah, good work.