Big Ten Commissioner Scores $20 million Bonus; USC Football Star and Wife Sleep in Car for Two Months
By Ken Reed
Sometimes the best way to explain injustices in the world is through real life stories instead of via numbers and dry factual statements.
That seems to be the case when looking at the economic inequities in big-time college sports today.
Take the cases of Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany and former USC defensive lineman Stevie Tu’ikolovatu.
According to a USA Today report, Delany will receive a $20 million bonus for the Big Ten’s 2016 fiscal year (on top of his salary, which is approximately $2.5 million).
Meanwhile, while Delany was busy cashing his checks, Tu’ikolovatu and his wife were spending part of the year living out of a car and an SUV.
Tu’ikolovatu transferred to USC from Utah. He arrived at USC to begin working out with his new teammates but due to a technicality with an NCAA rule, USC couldn’t provide him any benefits, including housing and food, until he was officially enrolled at USC.
Eventually, Tu’ikolovatu was given a bed to sleep in and went on to become USC’s defensive MVP and the MVP of the Rose Bowl. He recently was drafted in the seventh round by the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Now, whether you’re okay with the NCAA rule that resulted in Tu’ikolovatu and his wife living a homeless existence for a couple months or not, the bigger issue here is the economic injustice of a college conference commissioner pulling in $20 million+ while one of the stars on the field is limited to tuition, room and board (once he became officially enrolled that is).
We’re not talking about a Division III student-athlete playing for his small school in front of a few hundred friends and family. USC football is a big-time enterprise on par with the Los Angeles Rams. The Trojans pull in millions of dollars in revenue every year on the backs of young athletes like Tu’ikolovatu.
However you look at the juxtaposition of these two cases, it’s hard to imagine any other conclusion can be reached other than it’s simply not fair.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
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Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
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Episode #24 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Mental Health and Athletes: Ending the Stigma – Nathan Braaten and Taylor Ricci are the founders of Dam Worth It, a non-profit created to end the stigma around mental health at colleges and universities through sport, storytelling, and community creation.
Episode #23 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Olympian Benita Fitzgerald Mosley Talks Title IX, Youth Sports and the Olympics.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- League of Fans Sports Policy Director Ken Reed quoted in Washington Post column titled "What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement," by Jay Mathews
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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