In the 21st century, it is time for us to treat student-athletes on campuses the same as every other student. Football players devote their daily lives to their team, at the sacrifice of their education. Yet every Saturday when they put their bodies on the line in the name of their respective institution, how are they repaid? They are told to go get a 4.0. While this certainly is a good goal to morally have in a realistic world, the fact of the matter remains that they put their sweat and soul into football, as a roommate of 2 different college football players at an elite institution I have seen before my very eyes how impossible the time constraints given by football inhibit an athlete's ability to get a solid education.
While these athletes are compensated by getting their education paid for, they do not recieve the full benefits of this like other scholarship students. This is due to the increasing time commitment players make to football. As an eyewitness to this phenomenon, my roommates might have put 8 hours a week into their schoolwork on a good week. Can you truly say that their getting a good value in their education package? As my 1st roommate put it when he dropped Engineering, "I've always wanted to do it, but the fact is I can't ever go as a professor for help, I can't make group study sessions, and I can't even make all the classes. I'd love to do this, but their is only time for 1 because their is no support system for Engineer-Athletes and I've got no choice but to play football."
This lack of education was illustrated by another football friend when he learned he had a career ending injury: " For 3 years all I've cared about is passing, and now with football gone I'm looking back and saying what have I learned? How am I going to be able to get a job? All this time and energy invested in football but I got nothing now, no education, no money where do I go from here?
As a result players will drop the major of their dreams to an easy one so they can put the time into football. While this is a sad reality, instead of saying well its their own decision or things need to be changed, we need to embrace it as a reality and that changes aren't in the horizon. How can we fix this? We can pay them using the record level profits.
The amount of money currently being made in division 1 football. 5 institutions made over 50 million dollars last year on their football programs with another 13 making over 37 million. The reality is for all the time these athletes put into their sport the university could easily give half a million back to these athletes.
The same holds true for NCAA basketball, over the past 30 years the sport has gone from not being shown on TV, to being the top sporting event in the country, yet with the tens of millions being made on this tournament, the athletes don't see a dime of it. As one basketball player put it, " I'm never going to make it (To the NBA) and what do I have to show for it? I got some experiences but lets be honest thats not going to get me a job anytime soon? My education was about passing cause thats all I had time for and now I got nothing."
When I asked these 3 about being paid the various responses were intriging. The 1st player said that its not about getting rich its about being compensated for the risk they put on their lives. "CJ, every play could be my last... I could break my leg, I could be paralyzed for life. In the real world, people are compensated higher for risky jobs. Playing football while fun, is very dangerous, the risks of this game are shadowed by the media, NCAA and NFL. All I'm asking is that I get something for if god-forbid something terrible happens I can take care of myself for awhile or possibly get an advanced degree."
The 2nd had a more futuristic plan, " I'd love to get paid, I don't have an NFL future and I'd love to be able to pay for a Masters degree so I can go out into the real world and be a successful ND alum that happened to play football. I haven't been able to get the full undergraduate education value cause I was busy serving the university. But to get the money to propel my life, it certainly be a life-changer cause my family certainly can't help me out with it."
The 3rd took a more general view of it: "It's tough to pay us all (referring to the money generating sports) and not pay the non-revenue ones but at a big University it certainly would be a drop in the bucket compared to the revenue's and I'd certainly love to have some more spending money like the rest of the student body. It would be nice to go out to a nice dinner with my gf without having to think about the budget all the time. I feel like I've worked hard enough and sacrificed enough where that shouldn't be an issue.
This issue certainly has 2 sides but with the millions being made the students should get a small piece. Lets give athletes some security and let them earn money for the hard work, sacrifice, service and risk they take all in the name of the university and the NCAA.