The Benefits Of College Sports

Over the past 20 years, college athletics has gained in popularity. College sports has become a household entity. Every child growing up has their favorite college team. Whether it be from family relations with alumni, geographic orientation or simply watching the sports colleges provide. In the world of college sports, there are three that stand out above the rest. Football, basketball and baseball are among the NCAA’s top-grossing sports. Billions of dollars are generated through marketing contracts, ticket-sales, and merchandising. Intercollegiate sports have boosted revenue as well as increasing the popularity and public image of their respective Universities. In an article published by USA Today Sports, during the 2014-2015 fiscal year,

According to NCAA rules, “You are not eligible for participation in a sport if you have ever: Taken pay, or the promise of pay, for competing in that sport” (NCAA Regulations 1). The NCAA’s argument is that these rules are necessary to promote competitive balance. These rules also indicate that they have resulted in the economic exploitation of many college athletes. Still, universities refuse to share the bulk of the revenue sports generate with the athletes who make it possible (Marquette Sports Law Review 26.2). Due to these rules and regulations, many low-income student athletes struggle with the everyday life of college. One could argue the fact that many student-athletes are on scholarship, leading to a minimal cost out-of-pocket. The fact of the matter is that there are many other costs, other than tuition, when it comes to a college career. The inability to pay for certain aspects of college, I believe, add the violations that occur when a student-athlete accepts forms of payment. Many payments that are made are given to the athletes by school boosters, whom have large sums of money and can provide a variety of goods and services for

Recently, the PAC-12 Conference offered a proposal that would allow athletes to make money off their names and likeliness. This idea would only require the slight alteration of the NCAA rule book while also taking pressure off Universities to pay their students Allowing players to make money on their own gives college sports the best chance of surviving in the 21st century. For one thing, it alleviates the pressure on schools to pay players themselves. You don’t have to buy in when people crow about the value of a scholarship, but when administrators say that most athletic departments can’t afford to pay a salary to 80 or 90 college football players while maintaining all the other sports, it’s generally true. Likewise, it’s bad enough that publicly funded state schools spend millions of dollars wooing coaches, but this could get awfully unhealthy if public schools are suddenly competing to pay players, too. It’s also fair to point out that most major college athletes aren’t the ones generating the revenue swirling around college sports. The same way people watch every Olympics regardless of who’s swimming, LSU football will fill Tiger Stadium no matter who’s playing. These are the practical arguments against turning the NCAA into a free-market economy overnight, and some of them make a decent amount of sense (Andrew