The Exploitation of the NCAA Student-Athlete

I’m about to graduate from college in about a month, and it’s been a pretty fun five years that include some unique stress. I’ve been down to my last dollar on more occasions than I’m willing to mention, I’ve spent money on instances that I probably shouldn’t have, and I’ve had my fair share of irresponsible moments because, well, I’m a college student and that’s expected of me.

So, when I watch NCAA sports and keep up with the hell and high water that the student-athletes have to go through to play a sport they aren’t paid for, it rubs me the wrong way and it really makes my mind wander.

I’m sure I speak for a large number of people when I say that I don’t contribute nearly as much to my school as a student-athlete does. I don’t bring in the revenue, attention, endorsements, and level of productivity that a basketball player who spends 40 hours a week studying, practicing, watching video, training, and playing in games does. Yet, with this wide difference in contributions toward the school, I get more perks than these guys? There’s a problem with that.

We’re all familiar with the Mike Rice situation in Rutgers, we’ve seen the video of him pushing, kicking, dragging and verbally abusing players, and we’ve all come to the conclusion that he was out of line in every way, shape or form. The problem with Mike Rice stems from two facts: he isn’t the only coach who is remotely disrespectful to his players and there’s an abuse of the student-athlete going on that many are only empathetic toward when watching Rice berate a player for practicing a defensive rotation wrong.

On Sunday, just about everyone saw Kevin Ware have his leg do things that we aren’t accustomed to seeing; consider yourself lucky if you haven’t seen the video or picture of the gruesome moment.

Right now, the optimism Ware’s surgery and recovery act as the contrary to the ugliness we were introduced to when we saw video of Mike Rice abusing his players. Underneath the feel good story of Ware’s attention is him also being exploited and tak

en advantage of by the NCAA and even his own school.

Louisville and Adidas are selling t-shirts with ‘RI5E TO THE OCCASION’ on the front, the number five representing Ware’s jersey number. This serves as such an inspiring way to rally around Ware as he recovers from an injury we haven’t seen since Joe Theismann some years ago, it’s so inspiring until you get to the part where Ware doesn’t get a single cent of the proceeds that come from selling the t-shirt.

Ware, and all other NCAA student-athletes aren’t allowed to make a single red cent from playing the sports that make the NCAA the billion dollar industry that it is today. This is one of the many examples of how the NCAA exploits the very reason it has money to its name in the first place.

Guys like Mike Rice, assuming there are others so horrible, still get paid for being both a horrible person and a horrible coach. Despite winning just 44 games in three years, Rice made an average base salary of $300,000 during his three-year stint at Rutgers. For his actions, that seems to be about $300,000 too much, and that’s before pointing out that his salary was well below the average $1.4 million that the average college basketball coach pockets.

We look at the actions of Rice yesterday and only see the suffering of players getting abused and berated by the person who is supposed to be most uplifting during their years as college students, but the exploitation and abuse of college players go far beyond just one video, past one ugly leg injury.

During your college years, you embark upon a journey of self-identification, you enjoy years of being irresponsible while hiding behind the cloak of that being the expectation, and you do your best to make sure those grades are up to par for you to keep your parents off of your behind. That’s the general experience when it comes to being a college student: fun.

The rigors of being an NCAA athlete go beyond just having fun. They wake up at 5 AM to work out like maniacs, they go to five classes a day, they have to practice five times a week, they have study hall, they have video sessions, and they have games to play. They do all of this for no money, none. If you’re lucky, you’re in the 1% that manages to go pro. If you’re normal, you’re stuck in student debt while the NCAA pockets an average of $770 million during March Madness.

There are actually people who don’t empathize with this exploitation, all while complaining about jobs that pay them in the first place. Imagine being part of a business, not a hobby, which brings in millions of dollars to televise you, use your likeness to sell jerseys and video games, and your best means of compensation is a scholarship that isn’t guaranteed to be renewed next year because, well, the NCAA doesn’t work that way.

The NCAA has proven to be such a flawed system with what it deems to be a violation of integrity and what appears to them to have too much gray area for them to outlaw. Apparently, A.J. Green selling a jersey is more problematic than making sure coaches are dignifying their players. There is a swift action to suspend Jamar Samuels for taking money from his AAU coach to simply eat when Penn State’s administration took years to come under fire for the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

Because we see these guys dunking, running, and throwing to the appeal of our entertainment, we expect them to play the game, be quiet, and need for nothing. The suits behind the hypocrisy that is the NCAA pretends to give a damn about the very student-athlete they suspend for taking money from people just for being both broke during the most trying years of their life and being good at what they do.

This is all after recruiting these kids to schools, after coming into their homes and assuring their families that they’ll take care of their child, assuring them they’ll be in good hands. This is a system that will do its damnedest to make sure these kids don’t know their worth. This part of the reason this continues to be the very issue that it is today.

The issues of the NCAA’s lack of support for its athletes are not simply to explain, but they are simple to solve: treat them like what they are, like they’re employees.

For their troubles, we’ve seen guys like Dez Bryant get suspended for MAYBE giving enough of a damn to network with Deion Sanders for a sports agent. Mike Rice’s suspension when video surfaced his actions at Rutgers lasted a painful three games with a $75,000 fine. The money alone could support a Rutgers student for three years.

We love college sports because of the passion behind every shot, the emotion that fills a climatic finish, and the genuine nature in which the athletes care about the achieving the end result of a win. If we love college sports so much for that, ask yourself why we expect these same students to not hurt when the cameras go off, when they look around seeing everyone pocket from the business they make profitable.

So, when you see guys like Mike Rice acting the fool that they very well are, be disgusted without being surprised. There are plenty monsters like him in the NCAA, they just all wear a different mask.