NCAA Hypocrisy or Are College Athletes Spoiled Children
Ed O'bannon is suing the NCAA for using using his name and likeness in a video game and not paying him. The NCAA has a licensing agreement with a video game company for various college sports but the money doesn't go to any of the players, except very indirectly if you believe the NCAA
Why should the NCAA benefit and not the players. The NCAA says the players receive scholarships and that is a big benefit. Unfortunately star athletes don't receive bigger scholarships than non star athletes.
Almost all college athletes are more like Rudy of Notre Dame fame than Johnny Manziel or Andre Wiggins.
One of the more interesting arguments about the case if you believe that scholarships are sufficient compensation for playing big time college football, is what happens to all the other money generated by big time sports.
1) Coaches get paid an obscene amount of money.
2) Stadiums and facilities get more elaborate with sky boxes and other perks for the chosen few.
3) Non revenue generating sports are not treated like football or basketball. The money generated by the football and basketball factories tends to stay with that sport. The idea that all this money is shared with other team sports is over done at best and an absolute fantasy in most colleges and universities.
4) There is so much money involved in this business model that policing schools and players to keep cheating at a minimum is required. The bureaucracy that has been developed to enforce rules is expensive and increasingly ineffective.
5) The situation is getting so out of hand that players want a union.
The economic term is inefficient substitution. If there weren't a scholarship cap, how much would colleges have to pay for their star recruits. One and done makes the student athlete model look pretty shakey.
The NCAA may be interested in the status quo because they are protected and the idea of being a student athlete is an easier sell on a college campus than we are just another minor league, player development franchise, that is working hand in glove with the NFL and NBA and the MLB. I went to college and football and basketball players were already isolated from the regular student body if for no other reason than they already had to spend so much time at practices and traveling.
This is a house of cards. It works for the top half of the SEC, BIG TEN and the other big conferences but really distorts things at the Mid Major level where it is felt they need sports to be considered a legitimate university that can attract students.
And so it goes. It's about six weeks till the college football season starts.
Why should the NCAA benefit and not the players. The NCAA says the players receive scholarships and that is a big benefit. Unfortunately star athletes don't receive bigger scholarships than non star athletes.
Almost all college athletes are more like Rudy of Notre Dame fame than Johnny Manziel or Andre Wiggins.
One of the more interesting arguments about the case if you believe that scholarships are sufficient compensation for playing big time college football, is what happens to all the other money generated by big time sports.
1) Coaches get paid an obscene amount of money.
2) Stadiums and facilities get more elaborate with sky boxes and other perks for the chosen few.
3) Non revenue generating sports are not treated like football or basketball. The money generated by the football and basketball factories tends to stay with that sport. The idea that all this money is shared with other team sports is over done at best and an absolute fantasy in most colleges and universities.
4) There is so much money involved in this business model that policing schools and players to keep cheating at a minimum is required. The bureaucracy that has been developed to enforce rules is expensive and increasingly ineffective.
5) The situation is getting so out of hand that players want a union.
The economic term is inefficient substitution. If there weren't a scholarship cap, how much would colleges have to pay for their star recruits. One and done makes the student athlete model look pretty shakey.
The NCAA may be interested in the status quo because they are protected and the idea of being a student athlete is an easier sell on a college campus than we are just another minor league, player development franchise, that is working hand in glove with the NFL and NBA and the MLB. I went to college and football and basketball players were already isolated from the regular student body if for no other reason than they already had to spend so much time at practices and traveling.
This is a house of cards. It works for the top half of the SEC, BIG TEN and the other big conferences but really distorts things at the Mid Major level where it is felt they need sports to be considered a legitimate university that can attract students.
And so it goes. It's about six weeks till the college football season starts.
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