NPR commentator Frank Deford said in November the most illuminating part of the Newton saga, was when Cam's dad said he didn't want his son to go to Mississippi State because there he would be, "a rented mule."
"A rented mule," Deford says, is the best definition of college athletes he's heard. Everybody (from the schools to the NCAA) makes money, except the athletes.
So what about the athletes?
The Newtons and Pryors of the world help create a financial system that allows 84 other players to be on the field with them on full scholarships. That's not counting all the other collegiate sports which rely on football money.
Of all Division I football players, about 99 percent have no hopes of making the NFL and have no free-market value tied to their skills. Yet, they are receiving free college educations.
Forget about whether or not they are actually going to class, just a few men from Auburn, and maybe a handful more from Ohio State, will be drafted and actually see playing time professionally. Very few college football players are being "exploited."
Start paying the Newtons their true "market value," and you're bound to cripple the entire system. The women's track team is just as dependent on college football as the 84 guys running out of the tunnel.
It's not worth killing amateurism in college sports just to pay 1 percent of star athletes what they'll make back in the long run.
1 comment:
I agree, but I still think there's a legitimate issue about the amount of money involved in college football (and perhaps college hoops, too). What used to be a nice NBC TV contract for Notre Dame and a handful of others has become a billion dollar business for entire conferences. I'm waiting for them to allow players to wear NASCAR-style decals on their uniforms. Can't you see the Buckeye stickers on players helmets becoming the "Lenscrafters Buck-eye good play sticker"? That's how commercialized the whole college sporting world has become.
I accept the inevitability of this to a point, but everything the players wear, the equipment they train with, and even the freakin ball they use is "sponsored by" someone. That's why some complain about the players being exploited. In a "market" where everyone else is raking in the dough, they get a college scholarship and a stage to play on. I think there's more value to the stage than anything else, and that's why they shouldn't be paid. These comments brought to you by HP (my computer keyboard).
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