By MATT ROSENFELD
SPORTS EDITOR
College football players often receive full scholarships and expenses-paid college education, but should they be paid? (Michael Rezin/The Ram)
Imagine you get offered $250,000 to host a new television show. Sounds awesome, right? Now imagine the show that you are hosting goes on to be a hit. It rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars every year. There are t-shirts with your face on them promoting the show, and you are used in commercials. Basically, the company makes money off of you in every possible way.
Naturally, your first inclination would be to demand a raise. You would think you deserve more money, and you would be right. In every walk of life except one, you would get that raise and be paid fairly based on the money you brought in.
What is the one walk of life that you do not get that raise? College football.
In 2014, it is absurd that college football players have such an unfair deal with the NCAA. Under the guise of “amateurism,” the NCAA and its member schools make millions upon millions of dollars off of “student-athletes,” stating that the free education the athletes are given is compensation enough.
Simply put, that is ludicrous.
Texas A&M’s football program made almost $100 million for the university last season alone, and you can bet a large amount of that had to do with Johnny Manziel. Manziel’s number two uniform was sold in the bookstore and at the stadium, and his name and highlights were promoted across every media platform there is. The argument goes, “They get a free education,” so student athletes should not be paid.
The value of an education is not lost on me, and it should not be overlooked. Football programs allow men from less fortunate backgrounds to receive an education and college experience that they may be otherwise unable to have. We should not ever forget that.
The NCAA, the athletic conferences and the schools all profit enormously from football programs, successful or not. Then they sit on their pedestal and tell the athletes they cannot go out and do a commercial or get 10 bucks for an autograph after those same athletes risk their bodies every day for the sake of their school. Even students that have an ignorant bias against athletes can realize that this is unfair.
It is clear college football players have the odds stacked against them. So what is there to do?
Over at Northwestern University, football players are trying something new to gain some rights in the fight with the NCAA. The Northwestern football players have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to form a union, arguing that they are employees of the university and thus should be able to create a union.
The players have received backing from the United Steelworkers Union and are prepared to head down the long road of litigation that will come with trying to form this union. The motivation behind the move is to guarantee scholarships for all players in case of injury because in some cases, players can have their scholarships withdrawn if they are unable to play football for their university any longer.
Also, players want a trust fund that they can access after their college eligibility is over so they can finish their degrees. Currently, if players do not get a degree during the years that they are eligible to play, the money disappears, and the student-athlete is left hanging.
If successful, a union would cause a massive shift in Division I athletics as we know it. If schools were forced to shell out all of this additional money, thus decreasing the extreme profits football makes for the school, we could see institutions just dropping football all together. The final ruling is still years away, as you can bet there will be appeals to every ruling, but a possible college football player’s union is something to consider.
Are football players employees of the university because they receive high-priced scholarships to play football? The way things are now, I say yes.
What separates the run-of-the-mill college football player from any student with a scholarship is the rules he or she is forced to follow in order to keep his or her scholarship. All I have to do is maintain a certain GPA to keep my scholarship. Fordham does not feel necessarily like an employer because of the money that they give me.
Football players, however, have rigorous work schedules. During the season, players are required to give approximately 50 hours a week to football in the form of meetings, workouts, mandated study halls, practices and games. And, they must maintain a certain GPA.
Your average student gets to run his or her life. Football players, not so much.
As for the off-season? Football players put in 15-20 hours per week. By not making this extremely big commitment, you risk being kicked off the team. With that, your scholarship disappears.
Top that all off with the fact that players cannot benefit at all, not one bit, off of their college football career because the NCAA says it is unfair, and you have yourself an employer-employee relationship.
You see the best of the best in college football making the NFL, earning millions of dollars because they play the game better than most. What you do not see or hear about are the 97 percent of players that graduate with a degree, few with any internship experience because of a lack of time and nagging injuries that they will have to care for the rest of their lives.
Coaches and programs will do everything they can to help players succeed, but at the end of the day, you are responsible for your well-being. Northwestern football players are just trying to look out for their well-being, and do not be shocked if it is ruled that they are allowed.
Matt Rosenfeld, FCRH ’15, is a communications and media studies major from Verona, N.J.
