By Kevin Adler, Connor Jones, Joey Zocco

The NCAA says college athletes are “students first and athletes second.”

They are not paid because they are not university employees.

Theweek.com

“‘Instead of getting what they're worth,’ says Frederic J. Frommer for the Associated Press, these players are forced to pay costs like room, board, and travel expenses that aren't covered by most athletic scholarships — leaving many college athletes living below the poverty line. This reality ‘drives the powerful black market that thrives at so many universities nationwide,’ says the new NCPA/Drexel report. Athletic boosters allegedly bend or break the rules by doling out favors and gifts to cash-strapped student athletes. The fact that athletes are not paid while universities rake in money, says Branch, has ‘an unmistakable whiff of the plantation.’”

Theweek.com

College basketball and football have basically become farm systems for the NBA and NFL – all for free.

High school kids have tried to skip college athletics, and as a result the NBA and NFL have put age restrictions on when players can enter the pros.

Forbes.com

How do you decide exactly which athletes to pay and how much each athlete should get?

“‘Ninety percent of the NCAA revenue is produced by 1 percent of the athletes,’ the former quasi-agent Sonny Vaccaro tells Branch, sounding much like Paul Ryan” (nymag.com).

If it is not broke, don’t fix it… At least according to the NCAA.

Sports Illustrated writer Seth Davis said, “‘There is no movement—none—within the actual governing structure of the NCAA to professionalize college athletes.’ Of course: why would universities want to give up any of their ill-gotten gains?” (Forbes.com).

Paying college athletes any amount would be cancerous. After a short period of time, there would be no difference between college and professional sports.

“One of college athletics oldest traditions, recruiting, would be turned into an all out bidding war like those of the MLB. Student-Athletes would be sold to the highest bidder. All that collegiate athletics stands for; sacrifice, amateurism, and pure love of the game would be swept by the wayside, never to be considered important again” (60maxpowero.com).

Yes, players get scholarships, but the marginal cost of admitting a student is essentially zero. So what are the student athletes really getting?

NCAA enables university control over the student athletes.

Forbes.com

NCAA study showed college football and basketball players spend about 40 hours a week participating in their sport.

This means there is no way for student athletes to balance school, sports, and a job. The sport they play is their job.

Mintpress.net

Money is definitely not an issue:

“Two years ago the NCAA agreed to a 14-year deal with CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. to broadcast the Division-I Men’s Basketball Tournament for more than $10.8 billion.  So, for one month a year, CBS Sports, TBS and their secondary channels are allowed to televise the tournament for nearly $11 billion and the players do not get any of it” (ramcigar.com).

43.7% of NCAA tournament revenue – totaling $178.8 million – from 2006 to 2011 was paid to programs on pace to graduate less than half of their players.

The UConn men’s basketball team has graduated only 31% of its players from 2005-2011.

Northjersey.com

Athletes who want to go straight to the pros are forced into college, and therefore they are least likely to graduate. (forbes.com)

“One year I got the president of the NCAA angry at me,” Boeheim said. “I had a perfect APR rating. I had 10 players – they all came back. He said, ‘That was good.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that means I didn’t have any good players’” (northjersey.com).

NCAA will punish universities for low Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores, but not for low graduation rates.

Graduation rate statistics are misleading. If student athletes leave early for pre-draft workouts, they fail the rest of their classes which lowers the teams graduation rate.

Northjersey.com

According to Espn.com, the graduation rate for both the one-year snapshot of incoming freshman and the four-class measure are at least 80%.

“The one-year score was 82 percent, three percentage points higher than the record 79 percent from the previous three reports. The four-year average was 80 percent, breaking the previous all-time high of 79 set in 2009 and matched in 2010” (espn.com).

Why do these scandals happen?

“Norm Mager, CCNY City College of New York) basketball player recalled: ‘We were just dumb, naïve kids, 19, 20 years old. We didn’t know of any law that said you shouldn’t shave points – we weren’t throwing games, after all. And we thought, hell, the money looked pretty good. Even if it wasn’t a lot, it seemed a lot to us, since we had almost nothing.’”

“Sports in American Life” textbook

UConn 2013 postseason ban for low APR scores

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o24625JdiBM&feature=player_embedded

Bandow, Doug. "End College Sports Indentured Servitude: Pay "Student Athletes"." Forbes. N.p., 21 Feb 2012. Web. 1 Oct 2012. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/dougbandow/2012/02/21/end-college-sports-indentured-servitude-pay-student-athletes/3/>.

Chait, Jonathan. "Fixing College Sports: Why Paying Student Athletes Won't Work." New York Sports. N.p., 29 Nov 2011. Web. 1 Oct 2012. <http://nymag.com/daily/sports/2011/11/chait-why-paying-student-athletes-wont-work.html>.

Davies, Richard O. Sports in American Life. 2nd ed. . United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Print.

Howarth, Colin. "College Athletes Deserve to be Paid for Play, Student Says ." The Good 5 Cent Cigar. N.p., 25 Sep 2012. Web. 1 Oct 2012. <http://www.ramcigar.com/college-athletes-deserve-to-be-paid-for-play-student-says-1.2910556

LeMay, Joey. "March Madness: The Debate to Pay Poor College Athletes Continues as Institutions Gain Billions." Mint Press News. N.p., 19 Mar 2012. Web. 1 Oct 2012. <http://www.mintpress.net/should-ncaa-pay-student-athletes-most-live-below-federal-poverty-line/>.

Roberts, Jeff. "Graduation Rates of Basketball Players Show NCAA's Good and Bad." NorthJersey.com. N.p., 24 Mar 2011. Web. 1 Oct 2012. <http://www.northjersey.com/sports/032411_Graduation_rates_of_basketball_players_show_NCAAs_good_and_bad.html>.

"Six-Year Grad Rate at All-Time High." ESPN.com. N.p., 25 Oct 2011. Web. 1 Oct 2012. <http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7148351/ncaa-reports-improvements-athlete-graduation-success-rates>.

"The Should the NCAA Pay Athletes Debate - Risk Must Equal Reward for College Athletes." The Sports Debates. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Oct 2012. <http://thesportsdebates.com/2009/07/28/the-should-the-ncaa-pay-athletes-debate-–-risk-must-equal-reward-for-college-athletes/>.

Tipton, Jerry. "Official Records Have Calipari Still 42 Short of 500 Wins." KentuckySports.com. N.p., 01 Mar 2011. Web. 1 Oct 2012. <http://www.kentucky.com/2011/03/01/1652884/official-records-have-calipari.html>.

"Why College Athletes Deserve Six Figure Salaries." The Week. N.p., 14 Sep 2011. Web. 1 Oct 2012. <http://theweek.com/article/index/219223/why-college-athletes-deserve-six-figure-salaries>.

"Why the NCAA Should Pay it's Athletes (and Why it Can't)." 60 Max Power O. N.p., 28 Mar 2012. Web. 1 Oct 2012. <http://www.60maxpowero.com/patriots/content/why-ncaa-should-pay-it’s-athletes-and-why-it-can’t>.

What is a student athlete?

 Student athlete:-A student athlete is a participant in an organized competitive sport sponsored by the educational institution in which he or she is enrolled.

There are over 50 male and female NCAA sports and over 400,000 student athletes

Time management Hectic schedules Balancing of sport and school work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7pQoNXeB6k

Cornell field hockey player: Sarah Diedrich

Proposal to pay student athletes $2000 for extra spending money

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/24/ncaa-consider-payment-student-athletes-2000_n_1029712.html

Positives – Student athletes well-being improved

Negatives – Student athletes being disrespected for having this extra payment

What do you think?

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/college/story/2012-01-14/NCAA-stipend-money/52559576/1

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/24/ncaa-consider-payment-student-athletes-2000_n_1029712.html

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/paul_daugherty/01/20/no.pay/index.html

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1191778/2/index.htm

• College Athletics is a major industry.• It’s an extremely competitive business

based on the idea of amateurism.

1. Texas- Value- 129 Million. Football Profit- 71 Million. 2. Notre Dame- Value- 112 Million. Football Profit- 47

Million. 3. Penn State- Value- 100 Million. Football Profit- 53

Million. 4. LSU- Value- 96 Million. Football Profit- 47 Million. 5. Michigan- Value-94 Million. Football Profit- 47 Million. 6. Alabama- Value- 93 Million. Football Profit- 45 Million. 7. Georgia- Value- 90 Million. Football Profit- 53 Million. 8. Arkansas- Value- 89 Million. Football Profit- 37 Million. 9. Auburn- Value- 88 Million. Football Profit- 37 Million. 10. Oklahoma- Value- 87 Million. Football Profit- 36

Million.

1. Louisville- Value- 36.1 Million. Basketball Profit- 23.2 Million. 2. North Carolina- Value- 29.6 Million. Basketball Profit- 17.9

Million. 3. Kansas- Value- 28.2 Million. Basketball Profit- 17.7 Million. 4. Duke- Value- 25 Million. Basketball Profit- 15.1 Million. 5. Kentucky- Value- 24.4 Million. Basketball Profit- 15.4 Million. 6. Indiana- Value- 23.2 Million. Basketball Profit- 15.6 Million. 7. Ohio State- Value- 21.9 Million. Basketball Profit- 13.8

Million. 8. Arizona- Value- 18.3 Million. Basketball Profit- 11.3 Million. 9. Syracuse- Value- 17.7 Million. Basketball Profit- 11.5 Million. 10. Wisconsin- Value- 17.2 Million. Basketball Profit- 10 Million.

In 2008 the SEC and CBS agreed to a 15 year deal worth 825 million.

In March Fox and the Big 12 agreed to a 13 year deal worth 1.17 billion.

ESPN annually pays 60 million to the Big 12 and 10 million to the Big 10.

In May the Pac 12 agreed to terms with both Fox and ESPN which will be worth 225 million a year starting next season.

CBS Pays over 770 million each year for coverage of the NCAA basketball tournament.

20 year contract worth 300 million dollars. This is the first television network focused

solely on one school’s sports. Full access to all University of Texas sports.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUFWMfMuLUw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=kae8Mb7zaOc&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URal9iNnm9Y

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2011/12/22/college-footballs-most-valuable-teams/2/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2012/03/12/college-basketballs-most-valuable-teams/