Should College Athletes Be Paid and One of America’s Favorite Pastimes
College football is one of America's favorite pastimes, but in the south it is more of a lifestyle. Whether it is the hard hits, 90,000 screaming fans, or just the thrill that comes from watching a game something about it makes fans tune in. However, in the midst of touchdowns, interceptions, and big plays one question hangs like a cloud over college football.
Should the players be sharing in the millions upon millions they help make for their schools? This issue is a hotly debated, because of its impact not only nationwide, but in the states themselves. It impacts almost everywhere college football is played, but in Louisiana where football is almost its own religion the potential consequences of change are severe. The debate would not only affect the players and Universities, but could even bring up legal issues regarding title IX. The stakeholders that paying players could impact are current and former players, EA sports, the Universities themselves, and proponents of title IX.
Some of the main proponents for paying athletes are former players. A key example of this is Ed O'Bannon, a former basketball star, and quarterback Sam Keller. During their collegiate careers O'Bannon and Keller both earned MVP awards, and are retroactively going through the legal system attempting to get compensation they believe they earned. The main targets of O'Bannon's lawsuit are the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the governing body of college athletics, and video game maker EA Sports, and seek "money the NCAA earns from licensing former players images" (Elias).
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O'Bannon claims that players deserve some of the money for the work they put in, and that the NCAA makes "millions of dollars off the sweat and grind of student athletes" (Elias). O'Bannon's lawsuit is one example where former athletes, no longer under the NCAA, speaking up, and attempting to raise awareness for the lack of compensation players get for the effort they give. O'Bannon's lawsuit impacts EA sports, which directly correlates to the Louisiana universities.
As a direct result of the lawsuit EA sports will no longer be making their NCAA Football videogame series. EA sports paid Louisiana FBS Universities, Louisiana State University, University of Louisiana Lafayette, University Louisiana Monroe, Tulane University, and Louisiana Tech University, to use their respective logos and images. The money lost by the institutions is not much to larger universities like LSU, but for the others it is much needed money now gone. In addition, EA sports has a division of their business located on LSU's campus, and this Louisiana connection makes the impact EA felt from canceling their videogame critical to the state.
Alongside former players and EA sports, reporters question the fairness of the situation. Knight Kiplinger addresses the issue in his magazine Personal Finance. He says that clearly the situation is unethical, and athletes should be provided "fair compensation," but theimplementation of this scenario would cause problems and raises other questions (Kiplinger). For example, should other athletes be paid? However, the main problem that reporters and sports writers find is the NCAA itself. Louisiana's relation to the NCAA goes to the top. Mark Emmert, president of the NCAA, was formerly the Athletic Director of LSU.
Chris Smith discusses the "hypocrisy" of the NCAA in his Forbes.com article. The article mentions situations like former Marine sergeant Steven Rhodes. Rhodes returned after serving five years hoping to play tight end for Middle Tennessee State. However, because he participated in a recreational league overseas the NCAA said he would not be eligible. It was only after public pressure that they reversed the ruling. Furthermore, Dez Bryant, a former Oklahoma state receiver, was suspended the remaining 9 games of his senior season after slipping up and saying the wrong thing to investigators, because he was afraid he had done something wrong (Smith).
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Should College Athletes Be Paid and One of America’s Favorite Pastimes. (2023, May 30). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/should-college-athletes-be-paid-and-one-of-americas-favorite-pastimes/
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