There is a very political debate within the world of sports centered on the relationship between the National Collegiate Athletic Association and student athletes and the fact that players, though they may be worth thousands of dollars, often live well below the poverty line while coaches, universities and the NCAA reap millions of dollars in profits off their backs.
This issue was brought to national attention when 28 players from Georgia, Northwestern and Georgia Tech wrote “APU” — All Players United — on their wristbands during the games two weeks ago. The protest was sponsored by the NCAA, whose goals are, among other things, to reverse its long-standing position that collegiate athletes are amatuer athletes, who by definition cannot receive any form of payment for playing.
This issue is very complicated, which is one way of saying any potential solution is bound to piss off a large number of people. No one can blame athletes for wanting a cut of the billion-dollar industry that wouldn’t exist without them.
But this shouldn’t extend to the collegiate level: Giving salaries to players would do nothing but finalize the transformation of students who happen to be athletes into athletes who happen to be students.
The unequal distribution of funds and resources across athletic programs would apply to salaries, too — every time someone uses the word “athletes” in this debate, what they’re truly saying is “football players,” because that’s who create all the revenue to begin with. Let them work, let them receive royalties on the sales of their own jerseys, subsidize their housing — even have a national standard cost of living stipend — but don’t give them salaries.
Not that the NCAA doesn’t desperately need reform. The reason players are voicing their frustrations in the form of protest is that they’re being taken advantage of. In addition to the millions the NCAA already makes on broadcasts, even more money is made off of the likenesses of players, maintaining a veneer of innocence while it extracts all the money it can out of the efforts of the athletes.
Amateur athletics should be preserved, but not by an organization that does so for the sake of profit.
Alec Carver is a UF journalism freshman. This guest column ran on page 7 on 10/1/2013 under the headline "NCAA athletes shouldn’t get salaries"
