Former Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones is out of college and well into his 2016 NFL Draft preparations, but he’s not leaving his NCAA eligibility behind without first letting his real feelings about the organization be known. As a freshman in 2012, Jones infamously tweeted a very pointed question towards the entire college sports establishment, asking why he needed to go to classes when the only reason he came to Ohio State was to play football. A natural follow-up question to that would be, and if I’m only here to play football, which is a huge revenue generator for my school, where’s my cut of the money? Jones left Ohio State in January after his junior season of football, and is now free to really go after the NCAA. And on Monday, he did just that, speaking out on Twitter against how the college sports system exploits the lives of college athletes under the veil of amateurism.
Millions of Americans- myself included- love watching college sports. Major college football and basketball are not only very popular, they’re also huge revenue generator for the NCAA and its member colleges and universities. For the student/athletes who play the games, it’s not about the money…because none is allowed to be directed their way. Welcome to the modern world of enforced “shamateurism.”
Most sports fans, if they’re aware of the problem at all, really don’t much care about the plight of the student/athletes playing the games they watch. They don’t care about the byzantine NCAA rule book that governs virtually every aspect of a student/athlete’s daily existence. There are rules that govern what benefits they may accept- few- and how much money they can receive- none. The NCAA will argue that it’s about maintaining the integrity of the sports they govern…but that integrity comes with a price tag. They blithely ignore the billions of dollars bet on games as they profit from yet more billions in sponsorships.
VAGISIL: THE EMBARRASSING PERSONAL HYGIENE PRODUCT OF THE NCAA!
I'm so happy to be done with the @NCAA and their rules & regulation. They do any & everything to exploited collegiate athletes.
— Cardale Jones (@CJ12_) April 11, 2016
It's deeper than athletes thinking we should get paid. The @NCAA control our lives with insane and unfair rules.
— Cardale Jones (@CJ12_) April 11, 2016
Meanwhile, student/athletes are expected to live in something approaching penury, secure in the knowledge that the education they receive is considered sufficient recompense for their labors. At first blush, it might seem overly dramatic to refer to student/athletes as living in something close to indentured servitude, but that argument isn’t as absurd as it might sound. Colleges and universities, along with the NCAA, are making money hand over fist off games played by student/athletes who by comparison make next to nothing.
If the person flipping your hamburgers was making significantly less than minimum wage, you might have a problem with an employer exploiting them for their labor. Millions watched the University of North Carolina defeat Syracuse University earlier this month to win the NCAA basketball championship, but few considered that the student/athletes who played that game saw none of the untold millions the NCAA makes during “March Madness.” That reality becomes even more difficult to rationalize when you remember that the NCAA copyright “March Madness” so it could make yet more money.
Ultimately, Jones’ arguments won’t change a thing, and actually, many people oppose paying college athletes, according to an October 2015 YouGov and a March 2014 Washington Post-ABC News poll. But Jones is far from the only former college athlete to feel exploited by the NCAA system — a truth most famously laid bare by the Ed O’Bannon lawsuit over the use of NCAA football and basketball players’ images and likenesses without compensation.
Jones’ point about the NCAA controlling the lives of its athletes bears some truth as well, as it can be and has been reasonably argued that NCAA schools unfairly control what student-athletes eat and when they can practice and play.
The NCAA isn’t protecting amateurism…because the only people not profiting are the student/athletes playing the games and who are the reason why the billion-dollar industry of major college sports exists. This sort of “shamateurism” characterizes a system in which student/athletes are expected to be satisfied with their “free” education…often is a far lower priority to coaches whose rich contracts depend on winning games and fans and alumni who demand success.
A reasonable person looking at the NCAA’s enforced “shamateurism” might draw the conclusion that the governing body is a corrupt and immoral exploiter of young student/athletes…and they wouldn’t be far from the truth. In any other business- and the NCAA is a business in every sense of the word- those generating the revenue would have reason to expect to share in at least part of it. NCAA rules make it clear that student/athletes aren’t allowed to realize any financial benefit from their labor. That restriction doesn’t apply to universities, coaches, television networks, and the myriad companies which pay princely sums to be associated with NCAA events.
In another time and place, this sort of arrangement might have been referred to as “slavery,” or at the very least “exploitation” and/or “indentured servitude.” It’s not slavery, of course- student/athletes are granted enough free will to determine whether they’ll continue to play (and keep their scholarship)- but the coercive and exploitative nature of NCAA rules means everyone associated with the games profits…except for those actually playing the games.
It’s time to blow up the system and replace it with something that fairly compensates student/athletes. I’m not going to say I know what that sort of system should look like, but it’s time for the corrupt and self-interested bureaucrats who run the NCAA to stop exploiting student/athletes in the name of increased profits.
