By Ken Reed
A group of Pac-12 football players (#WeAreUnited) have joined together to present a set of demands to Pac-12 conference administrators. The demands vary from Covid-19-based health and safety concerns to economic and racial justice issues.
It’s clear to everyone — including the players — that college athletic conferences, and individual universities, have prioritized getting football revenue over athlete safety, despite what some coaches, athletic directors and presidents are saying. And the way they want to get that revenue is on the backs of their unpaid athletes, whom they apparently view more as assets than human beings.
Colleges and universities across the country have called athletes back to campuses, campuses that otherwise are like ghost towns because there aren’t any other students around. Many schools have decided that classes will only take place online this fall. Nevertheless, these same schools are announcing fall football schedules for the students on their football teams.
There simply is no ethical justification for colleges calling athletes back to campus while telling other students to stay home because it’s not safe to be on campus.
It’s simply a case of money taking precedence over student welfare. The reality is, more than a dozen football teams around the country have already seen Covid-19 outbreaks significant enough that they’ve had to shut down all workouts. And that’s before formal football practices have even started.
As Dan Wolken wrote in USA Today:
”The 2020 college football season will happen to whatever extent it possibly can because athletics departments need the money, and they’re placing that burden on the backs of unpaid amateurs who are taking on all the risk to their health and inconvenience to their lives without any added incentive to do so.”
When it comes to the issue of whether or not to play sports during a raging pandemic, pro athletes have the incentive of big salaries and a union to make sure the teams’ safety protocols are as good as they can be. College athletes don’t have salaries, and they don’t have a union to fight for them.
College athletes are getting a scholarship you say? Yes, but is a scholarship sufficient compensation for risking contracting a serious virus?
A college scholarship is certainly valuable but it’s a far cry from the fair market value of big-time college football and basketball players. According to a news study led by Drexel University Professor and Athletic Administration Concentration Program Director, Ellen Staurowsky, the fair market value over four years for a football player in one of the Power Five conferences, along with independents Notre Dame and BYU, is approximately $1.35 million. The fair market value over four years for a men’s basketball player at a Power Five or Big East school is approximately $2.2 million. Given that a four-year full-ride scholarship can range from approximately $100,000 to $250,000, what we’re talking about here is the very definition of economic exploitation.
Remember, the vast majority of college athletes never make a dime as professional athletes. Their careers are over once their college eligibility runs out. As such, their true market value as an athlete will never be higher than it is in college.
In the meantime, there are now troubling reports — that the school denies — that several Washington State football players have been cut for being part of the #WeAreUnited movement. If true, it’s yet another example of colleges seeing athletes as nothing more than assets that can be easily discarded if they don’t play along with the NCAA amateurism game.
The “#WeAreUnited” athletes won’t get all their demands met, certainly not by this fall. But this collective movement might lead to a better situation for college athletes in the future. In the name of justice we can only hope so.
As recently deceased Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis said, “We must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.”
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
Books
