\n<\/p>\n
For many decades, the National Collegiate Athletic Association preserved student athletes\u2019 amateur status by prohibiting their ability to profit off their name, image or likeness (NIL). As a former Division\u00a0I compliance coordinator, I\u00a0often felt the NCAA\u2019s amateurism policies went too far\u2014denying student athletes the right to earn money like other college students, such as by running their own sports camps. <\/p>\n
But now the courts have turned the NCAA\u2019s concept of amateurism on its head with the approval in June of a $2.8\u00a0billion athlete compensation settlement, which will be shared by student athletes who previously missed out on the opportunity to make money from their NIL. This historic deal between Division\u00a0I athletes, the NCAA and the Division\u00a0I Power\u00a05 conferences\u2014the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC\u2014has also made revenue sharing with current student athletes a reality.<\/p>\n
Athletes at top football and basketball programs may be celebrating this financial victory, which allows institutions to share up to $20.5\u00a0million each year with student athletes\u2014money generated from media, tickets, concessions and donations.<\/p>\n
But many coaches who recruit them\u2014along with professors like me, who teach them\u2014believe that paying college athletes for their athletic ability will hurt college sports. That\u2019s because doing so professionalizes college athletes in a way that hurts other students and sports over all and compromises the institution\u2019s academic mission.<\/p>\n
And while some student athletes stand to benefit from the new system, most won\u2019t. Many universities will use the 75-15-5-5 model, meaning that 75\u00a0percent of the revenue would be distributed to football, 15\u00a0percent to men\u2019s basketball, 5\u00a0percent to women\u2019s basketball and 5\u00a0percent to all other sports.<\/p>\n
Paying players will also change the spirit of college sports. Although the concept of amateurism has been a joke in college athletics for a long time\u2014particularly in revenue-generating sports\u2014a pay-for-play system would further move the emphasis away from educational goals and toward commercial ones. As one big-time head football coach described it to me, \u201cAs soon as you start paying a player, they become in some ways their [university\u2019s] employees. It\u2019s not amateurism anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
On many campuses, a separation already exists between student athletes and nonathletes, which some believe is due to student athletes\u2019 perceived privilege. According to one Division\u00a0I women\u2019s basketball coach I spoke to, implementing revenue sharing will only increase that divide. Student athletes receiving five- or six-figure salaries to play for their institutions will be incentivized to devote more time to their sport, leaving less time to engage in the campus community and further diluting the purpose of college as an incubator for personal and intellectual growth.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a possibility, one coach told me, that colleges will shrink staff and \u201cavoid facility upgrades in order to fund revenue share,\u201d putting off improvements to gyms or playing fields, for instance. At some institutions, funding the revenue-sharing plan will undoubtedly lead to cuts in Olympic and nonrevenue sports like swimming and track.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, it remains unclear how revenue-sharing plans will impact gender equity, because revenue distribution may not count as financial aid for Title\u00a0IX purposes. Since 1972, Title\u00a0IX has ensured equal opportunities for female student athletes that includes proportionate funding for their college athletic programs. If NIL payments from colleges are not subject to Title\u00a0IX scrutiny, athletic departments will be allowed to direct all revenue generated from media rights, tickets and donations to their football and men\u2019s basketball programs. As one Division\u00a0I women\u2019s basketball coach put it to me, \u201cWe are widening the gap between men and women athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be sure, the college sports system is problematic; as scholars have pointed out, it exploits student athletes for their athletic talent while coaches and athletic leaders reap the benefits. But creating professional athletes within educational institutions is not the answer. <\/p>\n
Instead, I propose that all student athletes participate in collective bargaining before being required to sign employment-type contracts that waive their NIL rights in exchange for a share of the revenue. <\/p>\n
Collective bargaining would ensure that student athletes are guaranteed specific commitments by their institutions to safeguard their academic success, holistic development and well-being. These could include approved time off from their sport to participate in beneficial, high-impact practices like internships and undergraduate research, and academic support to help them excel in a program of their choosing\u2014not one effectively chosen for them to accommodate their athletic schedule.<\/p>\n
The graduation rates of student athletes\u2014particularly Black male football and basketball players at the top Power\u00a05 institutions\u2014are dismal. A 2018 study by Shaun R. Harper found that, across the 65 institutions that then comprised the Power\u00a05 conferences, only 55.2\u00a0percent of Black male athletes graduated in six years, a figure that was lower than for all student athletes (69.3\u00a0percent), all Black undergraduate men (60.1\u00a0percent) and all undergraduates (76.3\u00a0percent). Under collective bargaining, student athletes could retain their scholarships, regardless of injury or exhausted eligibility, to help finish their degrees. Such financial support would encourage athletes to stay in college after their athletic careers end. <\/p>\n
They could also negotiate better mental health support consistent with the NCAA\u2019s best practices, including annual mental health screenings and access to culturally inclusive mental health providers trained to work with athletes. Coaches would learn to recognize mental health symptoms, which is crucial; as one former women\u2019s basketball coach told me, she didn\u2019t \u201chave the right language\u201d to help her athletes.<\/p>\n
Presently, the NCAA\u2019s posteligibility injury insurance provides student athletes only two years of health care following injury. Collective bargaining could provide long-term health care and disability insurance for those sustaining injuries during college. This matters because football players risk their lives every day to make money for their institutions\u2014doubling their chances to develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy with each 2.6\u00a0years they play and likely significantly increasing their chances of developing Parkinson\u2019s disease relative to other nonfootball athletes.<\/p>\n
As one football coach mentioned to me, it may be too late to put the proverbial genie back in the bottle when it comes to pay for play, but it\u2019s not too late for colleges to prioritize their academic mission in their athletic programs, care for students\u2019 well-being and restore the spirit of college sports.<\/p>\n
Debbie Hogan works and teaches at Boston College. Her research focuses on holistic coaching, student athlete development and sense of belonging of Black student athletes. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For many decades, the National Collegiate Athletic Association preserved student athletes\u2019 amateur status by prohibiting their ability to profit off their name, image or likeness (NIL). As a former Division\u00a0I compliance coordinator, I\u00a0often felt the NCAA\u2019s amateurism policies went too far\u2014denying student athletes the right to earn money like other college students, such as by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[1295,696,440,5577,7073],"class_list":{"0":"post-16588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-bad","9":"tag-deal","10":"tag-opinion","11":"tag-revenue","12":"tag-sharing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}