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What are the ethical and socially responsible challenges of colleges paying athletes and
for athletes?
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What are the ethical and socially responsible challenges of colleges paying athletes and
for athletes?
History of college exploiting athletes: Social responsibility vs. profit.
For more than just amusing spectators and giving a platform for physical expression,
sports are a means of promoting and maintaining cultural values. The identical societal ideals
that are portrayed as worthy of preservation may be challenged via sports as a means of
cultural resistance. Sports, therefore, are arenas for ideological battle. In particular,
dominating types of sports activities frequently reinforce prevailing cultural beliefs, which
sustain the social inequalities inherent in governing race, class, and gender relations. College
sports are a dynamic site of opposition and recurrence that spans a wide range of social and
geographic contexts with various degrees of power and impact. Sports in postsecondary
learning are often recognized as effective instruments for social mobility and racial
integration, among other things. Providing higher learning opportunities to a wide range of
athletes, many of whom would otherwise not be able to attend college, is regarded to be the
best way to ensure successful integration and mobility. According to Sanderson & Siegfried
(2015)
criticism of NCAA-sponsored intercollegiate athletics in the United States has focused
on the NCAA, and its member schools' systematic exploitation of college athletes, especially
those of color, those who participate in intercollegiate athletics are guaranteed a college
degree in exchange for their efforts.
This research examines the second allegation, posing new questions about the validity
of the notion that universities take advantage of student-athletes. Sanderson & Siegfried
(2015) argue that college athletes are exploited since they are 18 to 21 years old and that this
narrative is retold every year when basketball's March Madness and college bowl games
show the full extent of big-time college athletics as a commercial and cultural business.
These issues, on the other hand, continue to plague the country. There has been substantial
3
growth in the number of issues with the American collegiate athletics sector during the last
century.
Edelman (2017
b
). Explains that when former NCAA executive director Walter Byers
coined the term "student-athlete," critics decided to weigh in, provoking a discussion over the
commercial exploitation of "the corporatist complex and the monetization of youthful men as
well as women tread carefully against by the advancement of leisure sports at the cost of
educational preferences and the quest of postsecondary learning. " It is widely accepted that
football and basketball represent the biggest danger to the integrity of the institution
(
Edelman,
2017
b
). The admission of individuals who are intellectually underprepared
compared to their peers yet are chosen to play in these sports creates a problem for the
colleges that recruit them.
Despite decades of warnings and criticism, it seems that the issues in college athletics
are steadfastly refusing to improve. However, despite the gloomy prospects for reform, there
may be promising signals that actual change might be afoot. Shame and contempt at the
current state of college athletics have shown themselves in these placards. When it comes to
college athletics and their place in society at large, including American higher education,
some have advocated for more openness, while others have turned openness into criticism.
What started as dissenting voices has grown into widespread dissatisfaction with the avarice
that pervades our various social institutions, including our universities' sacred squares,
tribunals, and playing fields. Amateurism in collegiate sports, notably men's basketball and
Division I football, is increasingly acknowledged by the American public. Edelman (2017
b
)
is of the opinion that collegiate athletics should never be monetized, as stated by the NCAA.
But it's already too late. For everyone save the players, college football has already been
marketed.
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Public opinion, as well as the Court of law, has the power to bring about real change,
as it strives to evaluate justice and moral turpitude, among college sports. Lawsuits against
the NCAA, according to Meyer & Zimbalist (2020), may fundamentally alter the landscape
of collegiate athletics. Antitrust breaches, the right to publicity, and taxes are just some of the
issues being litigated over amateurism. College athletes would lose their citizenship
privileges if an effort were made to enact a definition of amateurism that could be enforced
by the government. This would be tantamount to a bill of attainder.
Meyer & Zimbalist (2020) explains that with the passage of a resolution by the
NCAA in 2011, December that allows providers to offer cross scholarship money and
increases the amount of athletics grants in aid up to $2,000 per year based on the full cost of
schooling, the NCAA has taken a significant step forward; it is possible that they feared the
current and extremely lucrative job might be ending. More than ever before, college players
are being exploited by the NCAA, and the NCAA's legislative attempts reflect this rising,
mainstream concern for justice in college athletics. As an addition to the literature, this study
provides a historical and sociological background for today's collegiate sports issues.
The morality of exploitation
The word "exploitation" has been misused and misunderstood in the past. xxxx points
out that exploitation phenomena occur in numerous forms in intercollegiate athletics.
Overtones of moral, social, and racial sensitivity may be found in it. That might be the case;
however, exploitation is mainly a moral construct to be avoided. The moral–philosophical
idea of exploitation may have varied implications for different groups of people depending on
whether the conduct involves money or other perceived societal goods such as education.
Exploitation takes place when one party gains advantages from its dealings or interactions
with another that are unjust and unwarranted. Edelman (2017) liken this term to Kant's ideal
moral society, where rational persons regard themselves and each other as an aim in and of
5
themselves rather than simply means. Individuals should always be seen as having worth
apart from their utility, according to Edelman
(2017) practical Kantian imperative.
One might undoubtedly claim that schools and universities obtain unjustified
advantages from student-athletes based on this moral concept of exploitation, exploiting their
athletic skills as a tool to generate income and public prominence for the institution. As a
result, the connection between collegiate athletes and universities may be exploitative. Of
course, the athletic departments, the athletic conferences, and NCAA, and institutions that
constitute these organizations might be accused of unjustly benefiting from the success of
student-athletes. The collegiate sports business may be regarded as manipulating college
athletes in order to fulfill its money-motivated objectives of ticket selling, garnering
broadcast revenue, and growing donor support. The NCAA has been accused of being an
economic cartel despite the fact that it is a non-profit academic institution. Instructors' wages,
and also admin expenses, and the most up-to-date stadiums and facilities are said to be
recipients of cartel earnings (
Sargent, 2022). There have been many complaints about these
schools' non-profit status, which has encouraged legislators to doubt their educational
objective and attempt to regulate them like other profit-motivated organizations. The morality
of universities and colleges that concurrently promote the principles of learning and the
commerce of intercollege sports, deriving their revenue from the athletic skill of just select
students, is called into question.
Issue of universities utilizing illegal methods in order to attract the best high school
athletes
According to Marxist theory, exploitation may be measured in terms of surplus-value.
Labor has an economic value in this sense. It's fairly uncommon for workers to be paid just
enough to cover the costs of their basic needs rather than the full value of their labor. Surplus
labor and the value it generates are terms used to describe the residual resources after meeting
6
an individual basic needs. Sargent (2022)
explains that by exploiting their employees and
seizing this surplus-value, capitalists seek to profit. As a precursor of political conflict and
struggle, Marx's effort to define labor power was an essential consideration in his work.
Thacker (2017) claims that an athlete's accomplishment is converted into an object
that can be traded for its equal worth in money. Workers in sweatshops trade their labor for
money or another reward, much as athletes do. It makes no difference whether the producer is
a professional or a weekend warrior when it comes to the commodification process. In either
case, the spectator-consumer obtains the requested material thing. As a result, Thacker (2017)
argues that university administrators are effectively exploiting the principle of amateurism.
Thus, the collegiate sports industry relies heavily on the amateur student-athlete, who
competes at a different level than professional athletes. Even while their financial worth may
be measured in dollars, collegiate athletes may also be a source of a reputation for a school.
An institution's reputation is strengthened by its athletic output, which is both connected and
separate from its financial status.
Intercollege athletics are undertaken in a high-stakes market for institutional
reputation and financial gain, placing a greater emphasis on organizational achievement than
on student academic performances. As a successful program, it might be formed of alienated
student-athletes, separated from the team's performance and their own self-expression. These
collegiate athletes typically saw themselves as disposable components in a computerized
sporting machine, only as good as their most recent performance. The outside pressure to
give positive results in this production system is considerably stronger when there is the
opportunity for profit involved. As a result, there is an increased risk of estrangement. "This
alienation has four major components," explains Kilburg (2018
). Workers do not have the
ability to own or regulate the brands of their own labor; they do not have an influence on the
productivity; output in a capitalist economy risk alienating people from the full range of
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creative possibilities available to them; and, finally, alienated labor generates particular social
as well as production connections that are diametrically opposed to each other. This
articulated alienation is usually only examined in terms of collegiate athletes' inability to own
and manage their work and the production process.
Marginal revenue
(MRP)
A wide range of economic theories may be tested in the sports sector because of the
industry's unique institutional features. Sporting teams may be judged on their victories, as
well as the productivity of their employees, regardless of whether they are collegiate or
professional. The idea of marginal productivity in sports argues that clubs, leagues, and
athletic departments want to maximize their profitability in terms of money as a possible
output and desirable result. The change in total revenue as a consequence of variable input
unit change while maintaining all other fixed inputs is defined by this economic theory as the
marginal revenue product. According to Allison
et al. (2021), it is feasible to get more exact
estimations of each MRP and see whether their wages are in line with this. Players are
exploited if they are paid less than their MRP worth. In economics, the phrase "exploitation"
has a more specific meaning than it does in normal discourse. Allison
et al. (2021) explains
that it does not matter whether a player earns $10 million a year or $20 million a year in
income for the club; he will still be abused. It is also argued that someone earning less than
the minimum salary, say one dollar an hour, is not being abused as long as his MRP is a
dollar or below. An intriguing philosophical quandary arises when a system like this is put in
place to serve the interests of a broader group of student-athletes. Title IX and federal rules
on gender parity in collegiate athletics may provide moral, if not legal, justification for
abusing the minority in order to safeguard the majority's equality (
Allison
et al., 2021),
The promise of future education and the possibility of financial reward
8
The economic and social benefits of going to college and acquiring a bachelor's
degree complicate these moral and economic assessments, which in turn complicate these
moral and economic judgments. The cost of attending college and taking out student loans is
on the rise, but the long-term advantages of earning a college degree are also increasing;
employees with a college degree earn more and are less likely to be unemployed than those
who just have a high school diploma. Having a bachelor's degree may also help an individual
rise on the social ladder. After finishing their schooling, vote, participate in physical exercise,
get health insurance, and retire with a pension. Smoking and being overweight are less
common among those in this category, as is the likelihood of delivering a baby with low birth
weight. A college degree is most likely to pay dividends for first-generation college-bound
students and low-income. If an individual is a low- or moderate-income student, they are
considerably less likely to go to college than a student from a more affluent family. Henry
(2020)
argues that even if an individual does not get their degree, they will still reap the
advantages of a college education through participating in college sports. As a result, the
most often cited claim that college sports are exploited centres on whether universities give
true educational opportunities to their players, especially those on revenue-generating teams.
Criticism of college athletes' educational opportunities may differ, but the evidence most
frequently cited is the disparity. Athletes are used by certain colleges and universities for
financial gain and public prominence, as well as for useless degrees in fields like general
studies or recreational life. Because of this, college athletes' career goals are often more complex than they seem
in the public eye. Student-athletes in high-profile sports like football and men's basketball, for
example, may choose to pursue a college education instead of or in addition to their athletic
careers. Henry (2020)
explains that
Getting noticed by professional scouts may be as
important to some students as receiving a degree at a four-year university. Leaving college
9
early to pursue the professional fields will decrease institutional expenditures as well as
potential money made by some of the most talented collegiate sportspersons who produce the
highest revenue for their particular institutions or colleges. Their undergraduate and
university success is undeniable; yet, these athletes have gained from the media attention and
financial rewards that have come with being able to showcase their talents and abilities for
professional teams, leagues, and organizations.
The debate over paying athletes
One of the NCAA's most well-known responsibilities is setting limits on how much
money student-athletes may earn. This approach has been widely accepted, although the
subject of whether or not college athletes should be paid has been a hot-button issue for many
years. Kinard (2021)
argues that to ask, "Should student-athletes be paid?" is a sign that there
is a lot of debate going on in this area. On sports talk programs, in newspapers, and on social
media, this is a hotly contested topic. In the United States, the issue has recently resurfaced as
a result of laws approved in 2019 by the state of California.
Governor Gavin Newsome of California passed legislation allowing college athletes
in the state to negotiate endorsement agreements in September of 2020 (
Kinard,
2021). When
an athlete signs an endorsement agreement, they may earn money for doing things like
wearing a certain brand of shoes or appearing in advertisements. It's a kind of arrangement
that allows players to get money from corporations and other organizations because of their
sports prowess. That implies that Governor Newsome's bill directly defies the NCAA's rules
and regulations regarding financial remuneration for student-athletes at member schools
(
Tepen, 2021). Tepen (2021)
explains that for this reason, Governor Jerry Brown of
California feels that the NCAA is immoral for profiting from the unpaid work of its players.
It's clear that the NCAA is making money: each year, the NCAA generates upwards of a
billion dollars in income from its student-athlete potential, yet the organization prohibits
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those same players from earning any money for their own skill. According to Tepen (2021)
,
as a result of a recent change in California law, athletes now have the option of booking
sponsorships and hiring agents in order to supplement their incomes.
The debate over paying athletes has seen several arguments put forward to support the
strong stands. Those who support athletes to be paid argue that: 1.
A portion of the profits should go to the artist
This is the most often cited reason why collegiate athletes should be compensated.
With facts and proof, it is also the simplest to back up; basically, the NCAA generates
millions in revenues because people pay to see college players compete, and it's unfair that
the athletes do not receive a share of the revenues. College and university athletic
departments would not get hundreds of millions of dollars in NCAA funding each year if not
for the contributions of student-athletes. The NCAA generates over $1 billion in income
annually (
Rae,
2021).
Rae
(2021)
argues that in reality, the NCAA would not exist if it were
not for student-athletes. People in support of compensating college athletes claim that since
student-athletes create so much cash, they deserve some of it back. Instead of using a group
of brilliant young people for their personal financial advantage, the NCAA and other
organizations like media firms, schools, and institutions are exploiting a group of talented
young people.
2.
College athletes do not have time for other employment opportunities
Gardella
(2020)
explains that students who play sports are sometimes referred to as
"full-time" employees. For a large number of student-athletes, this is a fact. The time
commitment required of a student-athlete is considerable. Their days are typically planned to
the minute, from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep. Student-schedule
athletes often do not allow for much time for other activities. Student-athletes may be
11
encouraged to regard their sport as a full-time profession by sports programs. Many student-
athletes may not be able to afford to pay for their school because of this (
Gardella
, 2020)
. It's
important to note that not all NCAA players earn full or partial scholarships. While it may not
be explicitly prohibited for student-athletes to have a part-time job, the temptation to go all-in
for your team while still retaining their eligibility may be immense.
A student-inability athletes to work a full-time job might have long-term ramifications
for their career. Student-athletes seldom have time for internships or other career-related
experiences during their time in college. They say that student-athletes are under-experienced
when they graduate and may have difficulties establishing a career outside of athletics. It is
because of these circumstances that some claim that student-athletes should be paid if they
are to be considered "full-time" employees. 3.
Student-athletes should only be compensated in certain circumstances
As far as "Should student-athletes be paid?" is concerned, this position falls
somewhere in between that of the more radical views. Students who are major revenue
generators for their schools and the NCAA should be compensated. What's the rationale
behind this claim? In capitalism, things like these are the norm. There will always be student-
athletes who are better athletes and more popular in the media. Athletes are often sought out
for endorsement deals because they serve as the public face of sports programs, excel in
postseason play, and lead their squads to conference championships.
As a result, certain sports do not bring in money for the institutions that sponsor them.
According to Lorch (2021), no one may be barred from participating in a federally-funded
program (including sports) because of their gender or sexual orientation. Because many of
these activities are less popular with the public, they don't bring in as much money as big-
ticket sports like football or basketball. The only people who should receive a piece of the
12
pie, according to this theory, are those who make the highest income since there simply isn't
enough money to compensate every single college player in every single sport. According to
the 2017-2018 season, the University of Louisville women's basketball team lost $3.8 million
in income (
Lorch
, 2021)
. Even after deducting their salaries, the team still lost money. Paying
players may not make sense in many scenarios, like when the University of Alabama football
team brings in over $110 million a year in revenue (
Lorch
, 2021)
.
Arguments against paying collegiate athletes
Many people believe that collegiate athletes should not be compensated. Paying
collegiate athletes is controversial for a number of reasons. The following are am the most
cited reasons for this stand;
1.
College athletes are already compensated
When it comes to college athletes, the most popular argument against paying them is
that they already get compensated in other ways. This includes being provided free tuition as
well as supplementary funds to cover their living bills, meals, and other incidental
educational expenditures. The proponents of this idea argue that student-athletes should be
compensated with free tuition and educational expenditures. This money, even if it doesn't go
directly into a collegiate athlete's bank account, is still a valued asset. In light of the fact that
the average student leaves college with almost $30,000 in debt, an athletic scholarship may
play a significant role in the overall cost of attendance (
Anderson, 2021).
It is possible to
gather evidence supporting this claim by comparing the financial aid that student-athletes get
to the financial aid that non-athlete students receive. For example, student-athletes on Duke's
athletics scholarship may "earn" over $200,000 over the course of their four years at the
university (
Knoester & Ridpath, 2020). Student-athletes are paid both financially and non-
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13
financially throughout their time at college, and this argument aims to emphasize the ways in
which student-athletes are rewarded for their hard work and dedication.
2.
Athletes should not be compensated for their time in the classroom
Furthermore, treating student-athletes like professionals exploits them and diminishes
the spirit of amateurism in college sports, which is why student players should not be paid.
Students and the "amateurism" of college sports are at the heart of this position. Nilhas
(2021)
argues that many who hold this view do so with the hope of safeguarding both
student-athletes and the tradition of college sports. Paying student-athletes, however, does not
solve the issue of college athletics, and this argument is based on that premise. As an
alternative, this argument would argue that the corrupt NCAA sports system can be fixed by
providing student-athletes a salary. According to Nilhas (2021)
, the NPR interview described
in this post is a good source of proof that the European model of maintaining a real minor
league system for most sports is successful; hence the US should follow suit.
It is possible to assure that players who choose a professional future in their sport get
compensation while avoiding the financial burden of compensating all college athletes.
Students who desire to earn money playing sports might do so if a professional minor league
was established and supported. According to Nilhas (2021)
, Student-athletes would not see
their college sports as the sole way to make it as professional players if universities were able
to securely reincorporate sports income back into the institution. It is possible for those who
want to play professionally to do so in the lower leagues, whilst student players would be
allowed to focus on their studies. If a legitimate minor league structure is developed and
supported, student-athletes can concentrate on their studies, while those who want to make
money via their sport may do so in the minor league. This argument is attempting to reach
some type of "best of both worlds" solution. Student-athletes pursuit of their education is
14
safeguarded by the use of this paradigm, and college sports are freed from ethical and
logistical difficulties.
3.
It is logistically a nightmare to enroll all students’ athletes to a payroll
This objection against the payment of student-athletes is based on practicalities.
Paying student-athletes would just make the present system even worse. It is best to keep
things as they are until a solution can be found. In order to make a case for this viewpoint, the
college NCAA must first provide many recommendations for how to compensate collegiate
athletes and then point out the flaws in each of those plans. According to Winders (2019)
, this
argument leads to a conclusion that college athletes should not be paid because of the
difficulties of executing it. "Pay-for-play" is one of the most common ideas for compensating
college athletes. All collegiate players in this scenario would be paid the same amount each
week to participate in their respective sports.
Scandals and court cases are challenging the issue.
Antitrust laws are applied differently when it comes to collegiate athletes' eligibility
criteria. This is according to the Supreme Court ruling in NCAA v. Board of Regents of the
University of Oklahoma 468 US 85 (1984) (
Greenspan,
1988). The NCAA has long
contended that antitrust law allows them to limit player remuneration in order to foster
competitive parity and separate collegiate athletics from professional sports because of this
lower threshold. Several football and basketball players in Division 1 launched a complaint
against the NCAA, claiming that the NCAA's limits on "non-cash education-related
incentives" violated Sherman Act antitrust legislation. For the athletes, the district court ruled
that the NCAA must allow for certain types of academic benefits, such as "computers,
science equipment, and musical instruments and other tangible items not included in the cost
of attendance calculation but nonetheless related to academic studies," which were not
15
included in the cost of attendance. District Court nonetheless ruled that the NCAA may still
prohibit cash or cash equivalent grants for educational reasons. Though it acknowledged the
NCAA's interest in "sustaining amateurism," the Ninth Circuit concluded that its antitrust
activities violated the law, notwithstanding the NCAA's claims to the contrary.
The Court concluded that it is illegal for the NCAA to deny student-athletes access to
certain educational advantages. In a unanimous decision, Justice Gorsuch affirmed the lower
Court's decision. A more lenient criterion proposed by the NCAA was rejected by the Court
as being inappropriate in this instance. The NCAA's "untethered to education" standards were
upheld by the Ninth Circuit, but the student-athletes who filed the complaint didn't appeal
that decision, so the Court didn't provide a decision in that regard. A statement made in a
1984 case stating that the NCAA's role in maintaining the "revered tradition of amateurism"
was "entirely consistent with the goals of the Sherman Act" was not a shield against all
challenges to compensation restrictions, as such rules were not even on the table in that case,
according to the Court's affirmation. There was nothing unusual about the NCAA or amateur
sports to warrant a change in the standard antitrust examination procedure. However,
although the Court did not address other laws restricting student-athlete remuneration
unrelated to academics, this judgment makes it obvious that the same classic "rule of reason"
reasoning would apply, according to Justice Brett Kavanaugh's concurrence. Under "ordinary
rule of reason examination," "there are major issues whether the NCAA's existing
compensation policies can stand test."
The Supreme Court also issued a decision against the National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA), ruling that the organization is in violation of antitrust rules. This
decision will have significant ramifications for college athletics for years to come. With a
unanimous decision in The National College Athletic Association vs. Alston, the Supreme
Court upheld the lower courts' decision that the NCAA no longer had the authority to
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16
prescribe limitations on education-related remuneration. It is stated in the ruling, which was
authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, that the NCAA must cease claiming protection from the
usual functioning of antitrust law. This lawsuit includes confessed horizontal price-fixing in a
market where the defendants possess monopolistic power," Justice Gorsuch said in his
decision.
The verdict does not alter the long-standing NCAA guideline that collegiate athletes
do not receive direct monetary compensation for their accomplishments. The school will
compensate students in other ways, such as via the provision of educational resources such as
laptop computers, musical instruments, scientific equipment, tutoring services, and extra
scholarships offered through the school, such as for graduate school expenditures. The
judges, on the other hand, unanimously expressed their dissatisfaction with the policy. Their
decision also portrayed a negative picture of the way the country's collegiate sporting
programs have been run in recent years. Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted in his particularly
critical concurring opinion that "the simple truth is that the NCAA and its member
universities are suppressing the compensation of student-athletes who together produce
billions of dollars in earnings for colleges every year." Shawne Alston, the principal plaintiff
in the lawsuit, was a football player at West Virginia University from 2009 to 2012 (
Marietta,
2022). During his time there, he scored 19 touchdowns on the ground. As part of the class-
action lawsuit against the NCAA, he and other college football and basketball athletes alleged
that the association's compensation restrictions violated Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust
Act, which prohibits any contract that restricts trade or commerce in the United States or with
foreign countries.
In a strange coincidence, the Supreme Court ruling comes at the same time that robust
legislation is being drafted in state legislatures around the nation to help student-athletes who
want to get more financial compensation for their work. For example, Florida's NIL Act,
17
enacted under Governor Ron DeSantis, took effect on July 1 of this year. Scholarship athletes
at the University of Miami got an offer from a Miami-based martial arts school to earn up to
$500 per month in advertising and marketing within a week of receiving the offer.
No matter if the NCAA agrees with these recent rulings or not, it is evident that a new
era in college athletics has begun, regardless of whether the NCAA approves of them. In spite
of this, one point expressed by Justice Gorsuch holds truer now than it has ever done before:
inventing new methods to make money is a tradition as American as apple pie. While the
judge alluded to what is often regarded as the country's inaugural intercollegiate tournament,
he highlighted that our revenue had been the driving force behind college athletics in the
United States for many decades. This was decades before the NCAA was established. While
making a passing reference to the race in his conclusion, Justice Gorsuch noted that money
had been the driving force behind American collegiate athletics since its inception.
Future issues with paying athletes
What are the social responsibilities of colleges and athletes?
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in sport must be kept in mind as the business
of sport continues to develop. There is a booming college sports industry in the United States.
Sports business in higher education is dominated by colleges and institutions that belong to
the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Turner & Hazley (2018)
argues that
the NCAA has done a lot of good, but it is also a paradoxical organization. The concept of
CSR is based on stakeholder theory. When it comes to college sports, social responsibility
and social accountability must be examined more thoroughly, particularly in light of the
controversies surrounding the idea of amateurism. Amateurism, education, and
commercialism are all important considerations in college athletics. Since college players
aren't paid and don't practice like pros, amateurism is critical to their success. Despite the
18
high income reported by several sports, the NCAA has retained its amateurism concept.
Athletics at the college level have a number of social obligations.
The remuneration of student-athletes to participate in sports at big institutions and the
share of athletic clothing earnings are two areas of concern for them as important
stakeholders. The NCAA does not presently allow players to be paid for their services.
Apparently, it will not be changing its restrictions regarding the distribution of riches among
sportsmen anytime soon. "Compensation for kids is simply something I'm vehemently
opposed to," NCAA president Mark Emmert said recently at the IMG International Athletics
Forum (
Jensen, 2020). As a student-athlete, there is no better location in the world to hone
one's craft than at a college or university. The student-athlete may argue that this stance is not
in their best interest because of the income made by the member schools from the athletes'
labors.
In the end, the most important issue to address is: What does social responsibility
imply in the context of intercollegiate athletics? As a result of this question, there are further
questions. As a society, do we need to focus more on education than sports in order to be
socially responsible, or should we seek balance? What is the best way to divide the income
earned by the major sports leagues? When it comes to supporting the NCAA's most valuable
asset, the student-athlete, how can we do it without giving out conflicting signals about what
college sports are all about? The NCAA may have a tough time assessing social
responsibility because of the wide range of perceptions that stakeholders have regarding CSR
in the college context. Fans and spectators, for example, may have a different perspective on
social responsibility than coaches and sports administrators. According to Cruikshan (2020)
,
since the NCAA is still trying to figure out what social responsibility is and how it might be
applied to college sports operations, having a common vocabulary and an open dialogue with
all interested stakeholders may be a good place to start.
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The solutions that are most beneficial to college players are those that include reining
in the all-consuming commercial force of athletics rather than allowing it to flourish. Among
these suggestions are:
1. Eliminate the one-and-done rule in the NBA. A disproportionate amount of
emphasis has been placed on the very small number of basketball players who are obliged to
attend college for a year and have no intention of graduating or utilizing their education for
any reason other than to retain their technical eligibility for the season. The NCAA has been
the target of most of the outrage over this ludicrous state of things. The NBA has a regulation
that prevents athletes under the age of 19 from participating (
Springer,
2019).
The answer is
for the NBA to provide additional professional opportunities for men's basketball players
who do not choose to continue their education at a four-year institution. As a result, the farce
would come to an end. The NBA's developmental league revealed this week that top high-
school prospect Darius Bazley will skip a year of college basketball in order to join them.
Professional football has the potential to follow suit and there is also some movement to do
so. The continuation of college sports as a viable option for athletes who also choose to
pursue a college degree would be beneficial to the sport of college sports. Furthermore, it will
need the NCAA to enact stronger safeguards to ensure that athletes can truly fulfill their
commitment.
2. College athletes should get universal stipends. The story of the United States
Soccer Federation demonstrates how difficult it would be for institutions to defend a system
in which some players get paid more than others (
Gillespie, 2017). The compensation should
be divided evenly, based on the number of hours of work put in by the athletes, rather than on
the number of people who tune in to see them compete on television. Members of the band
and cheerleaders should be eligible as well.
20
3. Scholarships that are guaranteed for five years. Sports were seen as an
extracurricular activity that could be done on the side while a student was studying under the
original four-year model of education. Many people find this challenging because of the
demands of athletics (
Edelman, 2019). Every scholarship athlete should be granted five years
of free tuition, lodging, and board, during which they may participate in athletics for a total of
four years of eligibility. It should only be possible to have the scholarship revoked in
circumstances of demonstrated misbehavior or academic failure. There will be no expulsion
of students from school because they have not progressed athletically.
4. College athletes' unions are forming. In the United States, we have an institution
that is dedicated to negotiating for decent working conditions and protecting the rights of
vulnerable employees: labor unions. Northwestern football players attempted to create a
union but were refused by the National Labor Relations Board in their efforts (
Blutman,
2017). However, in the absence of a legal labor union, a union-like organization might be
created to perform the functions of collective bargaining on behalf of the workers. Students,
rather than lavishly compensated administrators and coaches, would benefit from a greater
part of the excess cash created by lucrative college sports as a result of this measure.
In conclusion, the obsession with markets as a solution to the problems of collegiate
athletics has always seemed odd. Even at the highest level of professional competition,
sports, in general, have never functioned exclusively on market principles. Only professional
sports have the authority to deny a person the ability to work in the place of their choice just
because a company in another city has drafted the sole right to force them to live and work in
that location. College athletics are particularly unfriendly to the ideas of the free market.
Instead of evolving to meet market demand, they have evolved in response to a social need,
and the great majority of its members do not perform any capitalist functions unless you think
that the extension of market forces is a positive development everywhere and at all times, the
21
appropriate reaction to the invasion of market dynamics into collegiate athletics is to fight
back.
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