Using flawed reasoning to quell discontent — in sports or otherwise — is nothing new.
Back when I went to a private Catholic all-boys high school, for example, I vividly remember school administrators shaming students into conforming to the status quo.
"You’re all just lucky to be here in the first place," I remember them saying. "There’s an entire waiting list of people who would be glad to take your spot, so go ahead and leave."
Granted, whatever we were upset about was likely trivial. Nevertheless, I’ve always been bothered by that way of thinking when it comes to dealing with problems.
They basically told us "Yeah, there are problems. Yeah, we’re not being fair. But if you hate it so much, there’s the door. We don’t need you."
Because nothing says "we’re right" quite like telling people they’re essentially expendable cogs in a machine.
Now two years removed from my high school graduation, I see a similar line of rhetoric surrounding the treatment of college athletes.
With the Final Four approaching, this subject was brought to the forefront by Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis on Tuesday in a column titled "Will players ever stage a strike at the Final Four? Rumors persist each year, but I’ll believe it when I see it."
The article questions whether players are compensated adequately, whether monetarily or otherwise, for the revenue they provide the NCAA, their school and their respective conferences.
But the column takes a turn in a troubling direction about halfway through.
Up to that point, the piece is presented as a hypothetical conversation centered around Oklahoma star Buddy Hield, who begins by telling his teammates that they should boycott the Final Four because they’re being taken advantage of by the NCAA. That is, until one of his teammates confronts him.
"You want us to refuse (to live out our childhood dreams of playing in the Final Four) so we can get a little more money?" His hypothetical teammate says. "Have you lost your mind?"
Then comes what I feel is the most telling part of the piece.
"Hield looks around the room, sees all his teammates nodding in agreement ... and he relents. ‘Alright, well, forget I ever mentioned it. Let’s get to Houston and win this thing.’"
And suddenly, we’re back at succumbing to the "you’re just lucky to be here at all" fallacy.
While I do agree with Davis that no sane players are going to line up to sit out the Final Four, his "sit back, relax and take what comes" approach will never yield any change at all. The answer to addressing concerns over players’ benefits may not be a boycott of the championship, but an attitude that promotes such complacency does nothing but ensure things stay the same.
Going back to the "you’re lucky to be here at all" way of thinking, Davis actually uses a different word to describe the players heading to the Final Four: Blessed.
"Here’s hoping they spend this weekend counting their blessings while ignoring the members of the chattering class who are trying convince them to walk away," he wrote.
Because God forbid the "chattering class" (of which I’m apparently now a member) encourage athletes to fight back against the entity that appeases and controls them.
Now, to be fair to the players and to Davis, saying that college athletes are blessed is not an incorrect assertion.
They’re definitely blessed to have the physical capabilities to allow them to excel at their chosen sport.
They’re definitely blessed to go to universities that do, for the most part, take very good care of athletes.
And they’re definitely blessed to have had some timely shots fall to propel them to the Final Four.
But saying that any of their blessings matter when it comes to what’s fair and what’s not does nothing but avoid the issue at hand.
Ethan Bauer is the assistant sports editor. You can email him at ebauer@alligator.org or follow him on Twitter @ebaueri.
