Compensation for

Intercollegiate
Athletics
By; Jess North
The Case for Paying College Athletes

▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLzJehdLhpI
Where it all began

▪ 1906 The Intercollegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is created .

▪ Formed by 62 university presidents to help modify football.
▪ After 45 players died playing football from 1900 to 1905.
Sanity Code

▪ This policy limited financial aid opportunities for athletes to only

tuition and fee expenses.
Created after most athletes during the early-1900's were
recruited and were paid to play.
Several of these athletes were not even enrolled into the
colleges they played for.
▪ Later changed to include living stipend after many schools
threatened to bolt from the NCAA.
Student-Athlete

▪ The term “Student-athlete” surfaces when the widow of 26-year-old

Ray Dennison, tries to get compensation for the loss of her husband
by filing for workmen's compensation death benefits.
▪ Dennison died from a head injury in 1955 while playing in Colorado
for the Fort Lewis A&M Aggies.
▪ The Colorado Supreme Court agreed with Fort Lewis that Dennison’s
widow was not eligible for benefits because the college was “not in
the football business” (Solomon).
NCAA v. Oklahoma Board of Regents

▪ 1984 court case which ended the monopoly the NCAA held over
college football television contracts.
▪ With a decision of 7-2 the Supreme Court agreed with the lower
court's decision that the NCAA's control of television rights was
illegal.
▪ Once the decision was made “conferences soon held the power in
football – and as football’s popularity grew in America, the sport
became the financial engine for athletic departments" (Solomon).
▪ Conferences continued to grow with their media rights and staged
and secured everything from playoffs to different championships.
These playoffs are worth $470 million annually.
Olympian College Athletes

▪ NCAA allows US Olympians to compete in college while receiving income

from the United States Olympic Committee for winning awards and metals.
▪ Olympians are able to collect more than tens of thousands of dollars which
can reach up to six figures. This rule applies to multiple sport athletes, "such
as Kyle Parker’s $1.4 million baseball signing bonus while serving as
Clemson’s quarterback in 2010" (Solomon).
▪ The most defining aspect of this rule is how Olympians and multiple sport
athletes can receive income from winning, signing bonuses, or from
advertising deals, but normal intercollegiate athletes may not doing any of
the above.
▪ Starting in the year 2015 the NCAA allows international athletes to receive
these bonuses as well.
The Shocking Facts: Graduation and Classes

▪ A study released from the University of South Carolina's College

Sport Research Institute reported that “the graduation rates of
football and men’s basketball players in the major conferences were
20 to 31.5 percent lower than those of non-athletes" (Hruby).
▪ At the University of Georgia the assistant men's basketball coach
taught a class for his players. It was later discovered that their "final
exam that began by asking: 'How many goals are on a basketball
court?'" (Hruby).
The Shocking Facts: Pac 12

▪ A study conducted on Pac-12 athletes found that the athletes

averaged 50 hours weekly on their sports. Causing student athletes
to be too exhausted to study efficiently. This is a violation of the
NCAA’s rule that allows 20 hours per week to be spent on sports
activities by athletes.
▪ This means most teams in the Pac-12 spent double the amount of
time allowed on their sports. This sampling of 409 different
conference athletes found that while student athletes are generally
satisfied they are always very stressed because of the anxiety and
sleep loss associated with being a college athlete.
The Shocking Facts: Show Me The Money

▪ Sports economist and professor of sports management at the

University of Michigan, Rodney Fort, tells audiences, "'The money is
already there.' The NCAA alone brought in nearly a billion dollars in
revenue in its most recent financial year, and top-tier athletic
programs regularly bring in tens of millions of dollars as well"
(Strachan).
▪ Since sports are a nonprofit for universities all the money gets spent
on whatever the colleges want. It may not mean the institutions are
making money but they do spend all of the money that comes in.
Potential Issues

▪ Issues to consider are:

How much should the athletes get paid and will payments be
based on performance?
What if the athlete gets hurt?
What if the athlete is a bust and despite remaining on the team,
doesn't start or even play at all?
What will happen to the non-revenue sports at the colleges who
lose money from all of their sports programs?
What Should Happen?

▪ The payment of college athletes should include limitations based on:

▪ If the college/sport generates revenue
▪ Player performance (game time, statistics, grades)
▪ Player initiative (going to class, extra practice time)
▪ Player endorsements
Call to Action

▪ Intercollegiate athletes spend countless hours training, working out,

and practicing for their sports and on top of that they must do their
normal school work.
▪ It’s stressful enough being a college student let alone putting
countless hours into your sport.
▪ In order for athletes to be compensated they must generate revenue
for their schools as well as show initiative in and out of the classroom
and court/field.
▪ It’s said that education is payment enough but when someone is
working almost 40 hours a week on their sport it is a job.
▪ If it walks like a duck and works like a duck, it’s probably a duck.
References
Anderson, Nick. “Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Paw Print, Ilana Desmond, 15 May 2015,
wwhspawprint.com/445/opinion/add-a-story-to-your-site/.

Bagley, Pat. “Bad Sports.” Huffpost, Malcolm Lemmons, 29 Mar. 2017, www.huffpost.com/entry/college
-athletes-getting-paid-here-are-some-pros-cons_b_58cfcee0e4b07112b6472f9a.

Bertolas, Randy, et al. “Policy Point--Counterpoint: Are Colleges and Universities Obligated to Provide
Student-Athletes with Additional Compensation beyond Tuition, Room, and Board?”
International Social Science Review, vol. 94, no. 1, Jan. 2018, pp. 1–8.
EBSCOhost,proxy.library.ohio.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=t
rue&db=buh&AN=129149309&site=edslive&scope=site

Cole, John. “College Athletes.” Profiling Division III Sports, Anthony Caruso III, 9 Mar. 2015,
anthonycaruso32.wordpress.com/2015/03/09/news-analysis-college-athletes-should-be-paid/.

Cooper, Ryan. “Maya Dirado Contributed Four of Stanford’s NCAA-Leading 25 Medals in Rio.” NCAA, 2016,
https://www.ncaa.com/news/ncaa/ncaa-and-olympics/2016-08-22/rio-olympics-2016-which
-schools-won-most-medals

Hruby, Patrick. “The NCAA Says Paying Athletes Hurts Their Education. That's Laughable.” The Washington
Post, WP Company, 20 Sept. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-ncaa-says-paying
-athletes-hurts-their-education-thats-laughable/2018/09/20/147f26c0-bb80-11e8-a8aa
-860695e7f3fc_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.99b329a5baff.
References Cont.
Johnson, Dennis A., and John Acquaviva. “Point/Counterpoint: Paying College Athletes.” Sport Journal, vol.
15, Jan. 2012, p. 1.
EBSCOhost,proxy.library.ohio.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr
ue&db=s3h&AN=129285724&site=eds-live&scope=site.

NCAA. “NCAA Logo.” NCAA, 2000, http://www.ncaa.org/

Slothower, Chuck. “Ray Dennison in September 1955.” The Durango Herald, Center of Southwest Studies,
1955, https://durangoherald.com/articles/79431#slide=0

Solomon, Jon. “The History Behind the Debate Over Paying NCAA Athletes.” The Aspen Institute, The
Aspen Institute, 24 May 2018, www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/history-behind-debate
-paying-ncaa-athletes/.

Strachan, Maxwell. “NCAA Schools Can Absolutely Afford To Pay College Athletes, Economists Say.” The
Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Dec. 2017,
www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/27/ncaa-pay-student-athletes_n_6940836.html.

Vanderbilt University and University of Chicago, directors. The Case for Paying College Athletes. YouTube,
YouTube, 5 Feb. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLzJehdLhpI.