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Troy Austin
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
4/5/16
Making it Rain, winning the game but losing their futures.
One shot is all it takes, one shot dropping is all it takes for a team to become a champion.
With the 2016 NCAA tournament just coming to its close the greatness that occurred in the
championship game on April 4th is still so fresh in everyones minds. With the game over life
returns to normal and not everyone goes home happy. A lot of money was generated in that game
and it raises the question of should the Student-Athletes, young adults who put in an
immeasurable amount of work throughout the year as well as being regular students, not be
rewarded in some ways for their efforts?

871.6 million, a huge unimaginable number for the average person but that is how much
was generated by the NCAA tournament in just one year. Although this is a huge number with
just how much they have to pay it really does not go as far as one might think. The NCAA is a
nonprofit organization that uses this money to pay for things that schools need as well as keeping
the tournament going. A lot goes into a tournament like this, things like securing a stadium,
keeping the athletes ready, televising the games, and so much more. But having said this I want
to say that at the end of the day the NCAA is not the one who makes the money off these
students. I dont think if someone has to pay our students that all the money should have to come
from the NCAA. Rather I believe that the money should come from the companies who are in
the position to gain the most from these students. So many different businesses make a paycheck

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off these athletes that it becomes hard to pick just one, these include companies such as; Nike,
Gatorade, NBC, CBS, the owners of the stadiums, the schools themselves, and all the other
people who make things work. With all these people making a paycheck off these kids in one
way or another can they not find a way to split the bill accordingly. (Revenue)

Student-athletes are not the only people who play a role in making these tournaments
work in the way that they do. Most schools employ a Head coach, multiple Assistant Coaches, a
director of basketball operations, student managers, and so much more (Charlotte 49ers). So I
myself was wondering just how much these positions would pay and after searching for a bit I
was able to discover a couple for our own school the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
The head coach of our school which is a Division One school and won 14 of its 29 games this
year is payed $250,000. Our coach is also a first year coach so his paycheck is liable to increase
if he turns things around as he is expected to. Charlotte also employs three separate assistant
coaches whose salaries can be found with some digging: the coaches are paid ninety thousand,
one hundred and thirty thousand, and one hundred and forty thousand dollars (charlotteobserver).
Now the rest of the salaries paid are less widely known, but I know that most if not all are paid. I
have several friends who manage sports teams and they are paid, although not extravagantly, for
their efforts. This to me raises the question of who deserves to get paid and who does not, why
should one student get paid and one not, what is a job and what is a hobby? This is also just the
salaries from a smaller division one school, studies found that the bigger schools with focuses on
athletics produced much higher salaries for their coaches. One of the studies that I talked about
before found some very interesting data, that data said The 60 highest-paid FBS football
coaches averaged more than $2 million in total compensation, according to the report, with big

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guns like Alabama's Nick Saban and Texas' Mack Brown earning an estimated $6 million and
$5.1 million, respectively. The 25 highest-paid basketball coaches in the 2011 NCAA tournament
averaged about $2.4 million, with Rick Pitino of Louisville taking home a compensation package
of $7.5 million (Sheryl Nance-Nash).

If there are so many reasons to pay Student-Athletes why do we still hold out on doing
so? A big reason that we have been so reluctant to pay our student-Athletes is because in our
minds we are still treating playing basketball in college as a privilege with its own special set of
benefits. These benefits include being the big man on campus metaphorically and special
scholarships available to the players. This to me is actually hurting more than helping our
students. By providing these scholarships which can only be used on specific things they force
students to not make any money while earning their education. This restriction has created a
phenomenon in college basketball known as the one-and-done. A one-and-done is when an
Athlete attends college for a single year receiving an experience on the court and allowing them
to bolt for the NBA after a year. This seriously discounts what should be important to a student
athlete which is their education.

This might seem like a small issue to some but to anyone who has gone to bed hungry
because they couldnt afford to eat, they can see why the issue of not being payed for working is
a large one. This might seem like a stretch but if you look closer its not. Shabazz Napier, who
was a leading player in helping the University of Connecticut win a title in the 2013-2014
season, shared his story of going hungry because he had no food to eat the night after they won a
title (April Fulton). Billions of dollars changed hands throughout that tournament but the NCAA

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cannot even afford to pay its Student-Athletes making this money. This is not a one player issue
either. A study recently done by the National College Players Association and Drexel
University's Department of Sport Management recently had these findings; The results were
none too favorable for athletes: The average scholarship shortfall -- the student's out-of-pocket
expenses -- for each "full scholarship" athlete was approximately $3,222 per player during the
2010-11 school year. The report also found that the room-and-board provisions in a full
scholarship leave 85% of players living on campus and 86% of players living off campus living
below the federal poverty line. And the estimated "fair market value" of those FBS football and
basketball players to their institutions? $120,048 and $265,027, respectively( Sheryl NanceNash). To me this result is terrifying, for a player to make so much money for the school and not
see any of it back. If any one person who argues against paying our Student-Athletes made
anywhere near that much in a year and received none of it they would be raising hell.

This isnt all the costs that come with being a Student-Athlete either. Any person who
plays sports at any level can tell you that injuries are a part of the game but Student-Athletes add
a lot of time and this increased playing time can really have a very negative effect on a students
future. This is true for basketball but even more so for the game of Football. Football and
basketball are very physical games with hits and bumps being inevitable. In Football in particular
concussions are regarded by all who are involved with the game as being unchangeable until
very recently as head on head trauma happens with each play. Only after studies that linked
concussions to brain damage and even death were the NFL even willing to look at the research.
The film concussion has brought a lot of attention from the general public to this. With all this
repeated reinjuring of players medical bills after their college careers add up quickly experts

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estimate it could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, this is for all Student-Athletes even the
staggering eighty-nine percent of students who never see a dollar as a pro Athlete and are on
their own paying for these medical fees.( April Fulton) This is also just if the injuries leave
minor and not more severe lasting effects. In recent years one case that sticks out to a lot of
people is the story of Kevin Ware, Kevin Ware was a basketball player in the NCAA tournament
playing for Louisville. Louisville is a staple in the tournament and Kevin Ware had dreams to
play basketball in the National Basketball Association. After Kevin Ware suffered a gruesome
injury in which he fractured his leg leaving half the bone sticking out at the end. He missed out
on winning the title with his team and eventually ended up transferring after all the unwanted
attention and pressure on him after. His career is almost over now and ending completely
differently than how it started, all because of one bad fall. Something like this is common in
college sports and can happen at any time. Students are forced to restart their entire lives without
the thing they had relied on to get by with little to no help and almost no money ( Norlander;
Lake).

Now in my opinion not only are the students missing out by not being paid, we as
viewers of the game and the NCAA is missing out on a lot of opportunities it could take
advantage of if it was more willing to pay its Students-Athletes. Looking back now a lot of
students have weighed their options and decided that going to the National Basketball
Association was the best choice for their career. Had they had the choice to receive their degree
while also being paid they could have been developing and dominating their peers and we could
have witnessed greatness. I took a look at the lists of one-and-done prospects and students who
simply choose the league straight out of high-school and the crazy thing is that many players like

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Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and even recently Anthony Davis considered staying four years.
Had these players gone and stayed four years in college the amount of money that they would
have generated for their schools and the NCAA is hard to calculate but it would be an
astronomically high number. That is not the only thing we missed out on seeing though, by these
students choosing to go for four years we could have seen basketball played in the NCAA reach
a level that we have never witnessed, Players with four years added to an already NBA-ready
body would put on displays that would be talked about for decades. (Chris Johnson; Korey
Beckett).

This example of LeBron James is another case that I cannot help but pay attention to.
Although the first team that LeBron played for payed him very well, a steep four million dollars,
most of LeBrons earnings has come from off court. LeBron signed a seven year ninety million
dollar contract with Nike alone. Through his career he has made much more money through
sponsors than he has with players (Kurt Badenhausen). This leads me to one of my big questions:
if players are not paid by the NCAA why can they not at least be paid by sponsors? If sponsors
are willing to pay why should the NCAA be allowed to step in and restrict something that any
other regular student can do? I think the NCAA is trying to look out for the students best
interests but it has actually ended up causing more damage to students then helping them
.
I believe another huge reason that so many people are going against making a change that
could help a lot of people who are struggling is because it has never been done in the past. The
NCAA has had a lot of people play in its 77 years of existing, never have we paid a student
before. Of these students a great number of Student-Athletes have gone off to have great careers

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and wonderful lives and the people in a position to fight this are the ones who succeeded and are
not being mistreated. The other people fighting this have what they believe to be a good reason
to do so, do we have the resources to compensate what has been 77 years of players. Do all these
players not deserve to be compensated for what they did, is it fair to pay these players and then
ignore all the players who have come through and contributed to making the league as great as it
is today? Although I do agree that both these reasons are good, by staying in the past we are only
hurting a league that is already struggling to survive. If they really believe that the way they
came up was unfair why would they not want to make it so the ones that come after them do not
have to?

After doing all this research I can see as well as many others that something needs to
change and soon. Even if its just opening the way for sponsoring of the Athletes or giving better
scholarships to players to further help our athletes. I also like the idea that the NCPA puts
forward of creating a lockbox inaccessible by students normally but opened when needed. With a
situation like this the NCAA and the schools put money in a locked account that can only be
accessed in a crisis for a student like being injured or not having the money to eat. This locked
account can be opened by maybe just a head coach or a person in a position of responsibility for
the kids. The point is that if college basketball does not want to see something like the NBA
lockout they need to do something and quickly. Many students have already taken to playing
overseas or simply not playing college ball at all to avoid the corruptness of the NCAA, as more
and more students push for unionization it is very likely that a group of students could decide to
sit out and not play and that more schools could follow. This situation is what should be avoided

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at all costs for the students, fans, and the NCAA itself. A solution must be found before things
escalate to that point.

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Works Cited
1.

"N.C. University Salary Database, 2014-15." Charlotteobserver. The Charlotte Observer,

24 Mar. 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

Charlotte49ers. Neulion, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

http://www.charlotte49ers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=209838251
3.

Berkowitz, Steve. "NCAA Salaries." USA TODAY Sports. Gannett Company, n.d. Web.

12 Apr. 2016.
4.

"Revenue." NCAA.org. Ncaapublications, 22 Nov. 2013. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

5.

"Charlotte 49ers Schedule - 2015-16." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, n.d. Web. 12 Apr.

2016.
6.

Badenhausen, Kurt. "How LeBron James Has Earned $450M During His NBA Career."

Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 9 July 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

"Chris Johnson: Examining the Results of College Basketball's One-And-Done Era."

Examining the Results of College Basketball's One-And-Done Era. Brendan Ripp, n.d. Web. 12
Apr. 2016.
8.

Beckell, Korey. "Top 15 NBA Players That Didn't Go To College." TheSportster.

Thesportster, 20 Sept. 2015. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

Lake, Thomas. "Kevin Ware Hoping to Be Remembered for More than a Gruesome

Injury." Unbroken: Kevin Ware Rebuilding His Hoops Career Away from the Spotlight. Brendan
Ripp, 20 Jan. 2015. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
10.

Norlander, Matt. "Kevin Ware on His Final Season at Louisville: 'It Was a Bad Year'"

CBSSports.com. Sportsline USA, 1 May 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

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11.

Fulton, April. "Hunger Games: College Athletes Make Play For Collective Bargaining."

NPR. NPR, 21 Apr. 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

Nance-nash, Sheryl. "NCAA Rules Trap Many College Athletes in Poverty -

DailyFinance." DailyFinance.com. asnik Finance, 13 Sept. 2011. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

Berr, Jonathan. "March Madness: Follow the Money." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 20

Mar. 2015. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

Associated Press. "NCAA President: Not a Good Idea." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures,

17 Sept. 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

Yankah, Ekow. "Why N.C.A.A. Athletes Shouldn't Be Paid - The New Yorker." The New

Yorker. Cond Nast, 14 Oct. 2015. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

McCauley, Kieran. "College Athletes Shouldnt Be Paid." College Athletes Shouldnt Be

Paid. Edward S. Condra, 28 Apr. 2015. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.