Time for the NCAA to face some reality

Editorial by Burlington Times-News, August 25, 2015.

Given the federal government’s inclination to overreach, it was refreshing to see the National Labor Relations Board block college football players from forming a union.

Unfortunately, the NLRB stopped short of saying that college athletes are not employees, and union organizers took heart from the omission. The federal government’s labor regulators offered a mealy mouthed rationale about the chaos that could result from union and non-union teams sharing the playing field while having different standards for players. Of course, by not settling the issue definitively, the board left open the possibility for the chaos its members feared.

Athletes are no more employees than are students attending college on academic scholarships. They are rewarded with tuition, room and board and a few other trinkets for their athletic talents, just as students on academic scholarships are rewarded for their intellectual prowess. If athletes are receiving further remuneration from their schools (or the schools’ boosters, for that matter) it is in violation of NCAA rules. And unless they are declaring their income and paying taxes on it, they aren’t involved in a standard employment agreement.

While some might snicker at the idea that the free college education offered in return for playing is an athlete’s reward, it is not inconsequential. Trivializing the privilege of walking out the door with a degree debt-free is an insult to every tuition-paying student and parent. Athletes who choose to waste the opportunity that ordinary students pay so dearly for have only themselves to blame if they don’t make the most of it and wind up poor and uneducated.

Meanwhile, all this sickeningly sweet talk of amateurism has become annoying. The NCAA insists that athletes be treated like every other student, and universities crow about “student athletes.” But players in the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division 1A) aren’t like every other student, and NCAA amateurism regulations do more to ensure that than anything else.

If universities were really as concerned about athletes’ academic success as their playing ability, athletic scholarships would be for four full years, not one year at a time.

It’s time for the NCAA to set aside its fiction that students who spend so much time and energy in their athletic pursuits that they can’t hold down a part-time job and study, too, are somehow supposed to be treated just like any other student. Many of its nit-picking amateurism rules should go.

Student football players with limited eligibility should not be on the university’s payroll, but they should have the full cost of attendance paid for and should be paid a reasonable stipend. The medical costs associated with injuries incurred while playing should be covered as long as they affect the athlete, as well.

Football Bowl Subdivision players inhabit a middle ground between amateurism and being employees. Colleges and the NCAA should deal with that reality realistically.

http://www.thetimesnews.com/article/20150824/OPINION/150829440/15233/OPINION