by Tyler Fransen

Dear NCAA; just pay the athletes already.

Oh, it would be too much of a burden to pay them? Not sure how you would handle all that paperwork? Right, because a 440 page rulebook that these athletes have to abide by is modest, but a W-4 is too much, got it.

Okay, then how about you let the athletes profit from merchandise they sell of their likeness? Jerseys, hats, posters, bobbleheads or anything like that. What’s the harm in letting them start up their brand? Wait a minute, you own their likeness? Really NCAA? You’re going to profit off of a 19-year-old kid who can slam dunk, but that same kid can’t do the same? In any other developed country this is what we call “exploitation.”

We have laws in place for child actors to be protected from their greedy parents and their never ending quest to profit off of their kid’s success. Why don’t do the same for you NCAA?

College amateurism? Oh I get it, because these athletes are not professional, they shouldn’t be getting paid to do what they enjoy, okay. Is that the same thing you tell a music major who starts a band with his friends and goes around town playing bars getting $100 a gig? Because technically they’re not professional either, yet they’re getting paid for what they enjoy, so what’s the difference? Does the NCAA not like the idea of college kids having money? Because I can assure you, we don’t have a lot of money.

But alright, so no sponsorship deals or endorsements, and I’m sure this applies to coaches as well, right? It doesn’t? You mean to tell me that players can’t make money off of their likeness, but the coaches can? I realize that they’re supposed to teach the players, but if they’re not professional players or professional teams, then surely they’re not professional coaches either, right? No? Well then.

Let me ask you this NCAA, does a student athlete get to work a job while they’re in school? Lots of college kids work part time or even in rare cases full time to ease some of the stresses of paying for college. And I know that a lot of your student athletes are getting paid in a scholarship, but sometimes that extra money from working goes a long way.

So, what’s the word on part time work for athletes? They can? Awesome! How much? Less than $2,000 a year above scholarship? Well that’s barely anything. And come to think of it does a student athlete really have the time to work if they’re in school and practices all day?
Some of them are not even in school? How is that possible, they’re “student” athletes! If they were just “athletes” they would be allowed to get paid or get merchandising rights, and we can’t have that now can we? So why are some of them not going to classes?

It’s because of paper classes, well what are those? Oh wait I remember what those are, those are classes that give an athlete a GPA boost to remain academically eligible for their sport. I wonder if they have those same classes available for other students like me who could use a free pass every so often.

Oh paper classes are perpetrating a fraud, okay then nevermind, clearly academics is not the most important part about the student athlete experience. Unless, by chance, the director of the NCAA tried to justify not paying athletes by saying they were getting paid in an education, because that would be just outright embarrassing. He did say that? Oh beautiful.

Alright NCAA, you’ve proven yourself to be hypocritical in almost every fashion, so don’t you think it’s time we abandon the notion of college amateurs being amateurs? You guys make billions of dollars in ad revenue and merchandise sales, but the people that actually generate those sources of revenue don’t make a dime off of their success.

It’s not you who spent those hours in the gym getting ready for the conference championship game, it was the athletes. The head of the NCAA Mark Emmert is not making the game winning three point shot against UCLA, it’s the athlete on the court.

You, NCAA, have contributed nothing to players lives outside of being the bureaucratic board that tells them even if they’re poor and hungry or if their family needs money, they can’t be paid as professionals or make some sort of living off of their brand as athletes.

So either stop lying to yourselves and give the athletes their fair shake, or drop the sponsorships and the ad revenue and make yourselves truly amateurs.

Because for my, albeit very little, money, you guys sure do act like a bunch of amateurs.