Exploitation of College Athletes
Imagine you work at a business outside of Austin, Texas. For 10 months out of the year you are required to be outside in the Texas heat for 3 hours a day twice a day. Now imagine that you also have a full schedule of classes to attend. On top of that you generate millions and millions of dollars each year for your employer of which you don’t see a single penny, and if you’re not lucky you are actually paying them to be there. Does this sound like some kind of underground sweatshop operation Nike is running in the heartland of America? Actually, this is describing the typical life of a college football player at the University of Texas under the current guidelines of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
Every year millions of people flock to stadiums across the country to watch their local collegiate teams participate in athletic competitions. Along with the entertainment provided to the fans, the schools give the people of that university a sense of pride and bragging rights amongst other teams. Over the years, the popularity of college sports (especially basketball and football) has brought in incredible amounts of money for their respective universities. These sports are currently multi-million dollar businesses that are branded, marketed, and sold in the same way that any other product is. In the middle of this fanatical marketplace are the people who compete in the sports, the student-athletes, who are sometimes overlooked as mere objects. While colleges and universities continue bring in millions of dollars off of these young men and women, they don’t get paid a single cent. In the following paper I want to examine the underlying problems of the business that is college sports and how the athletes are exploited for their talents and how the universities that claim to protect them are winning big. In order for us to examine this issue we will start by looking at a few different models that have emerged over the years as this topic has
Every year millions of people flock to stadiums across the country to watch their local collegiate teams participate in athletic competitions. Along with the entertainment provided to the fans, the schools give the people of that university a sense of pride and bragging rights amongst other teams. Over the years, the popularity of college sports (especially basketball and football) has brought in incredible amounts of money for their respective universities. These sports are currently multi-million dollar businesses that are branded, marketed, and sold in the same way that any other product is. In the middle of this fanatical marketplace are the people who compete in the sports, the student-athletes, who are sometimes overlooked as mere objects. While colleges and universities continue bring in millions of dollars off of these young men and women, they don’t get paid a single cent. In the following paper I want to examine the underlying problems of the business that is college sports and how the athletes are exploited for their talents and how the universities that claim to protect them are winning big. In order for us to examine this issue we will start by looking at a few different models that have emerged over the years as this topic has
Bibliography: McKenzie, Richard B. "Does the NCAA Exploit College Athletes? An Economics and Legal Representation." Hein Online. N.p., n.d. Web. Apr. 2013. Goplerud, Peter C., III. "Pay For Play For College Athletics: Now, More Than Ever." Hein Online. N.p., n.d. Web. Apr. 2013. "National Collegiate Athletic Association." NCAA Public Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. Apr. 2013. Thamel, Pete. "N.C.A.A. Strife, and How to Ease It." N.C.A.A. Strife Could Be Eased By Revenue Sharing. The New York Times. N.p., 10 Sept. 2012. Web. .