Article from For Liberty by Norm Leahy.
College athletes got a win in Florida last week when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation giving them the right to earn money from making endorsements.
“This whole issue of student-athletes and being able to receive compensations for their likeness or image is something that’s been bubbling to the surface in the last couple years,” DeSantis said during a news conference at the University of Miami’s indoor football practice facility. “I viewed it as something that was a matter of fairness.”
The move is a blow to the NCAA, which for decades has forbidden athletes from accepting any money from sponsors and aggressively punishing both players and programs for violating its rules.
College athletics generates billions of dollars in revenue each year, money that flows to universities, their athletic departments, and personnel – but not to players. The NCAA has long held that scholar-athletes are compensated in other ways, primarily through scholarships.
The NCAA has threatened to sue states that have passed laws similar to Florida’s, arguing they violate interstate commerce protections.
According to ESPN’s Dan Murphy, NCAA president Mark Emmert and others “strongly opposed” to individual state laws allowing players to profit from their own names and likenesses. The NCAA also is worried a state-by-state approach could create an incentive for recruits to pick a school “based on where they can make the most money and give some athletic programs an unequal recruiting advantage.”
Sounds a lot like the market in action – something a cartel-like the NCAA is desperate to stop.
Image Credit: By Jericho [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
wpDiscuz
My question is , athlets get to make money by giving endorsements taking pictures . what are they doing for the students that are not athletes ? seams one sided to me !!
I would feel bad for the schools if they were not already funneling money to their big stars anyway. And there is a good side affect folks are not considering. If a tier-1 player can make a million or more on endorsements … they might just stay in college (or not skip college altogether).
The athletes are getting the opportunity to get an education ($200,000+) experience college life, build a resume, make connections learn etc . Other kids and parents go into debt to pay for school and they receive no guarantees for future wealth. Especially for Football, basketball, maybe baseball there is a chance of wealth and they are pampered. Other athletes , like rugby, crew,volleyball lacrosse do not have much chance of future wealth or fame their endorsements will not bring millions They will not share in the profits Football, basketball and baseball players have opportunities
Life is all about choices, isn’t it?
Just cut out all sports scholarships. This takes the amateur out of college sports. No more college sports for me.
Here might be the solution. The athlete went to school on a scholarship as a reward for his athletic ability. That money came from a finite pool of monies available for scholarships. If an athlete chooses to earn money from allowing his likeness to be used and securing endorsements, fine! Then he MUST declare to the school dollar for dollar what he has earned and for each dollar earned is a dollar deleted from his scholarship and all other benefits (books, room and board, tutors etc) until you reach ZERO. All these monies would now be freed up to be given to other athletes in need. Seems simple enough?
if an athlete markets themselves for compensation, then they get no scholarship/benefits, have to pay for their education, along with adhering to the academic/behavior requirements of any other student and cannot be counted against scholarship quotas. the school in turn can offer scholarships to develop athletes that might not have gotten the opportunity.
still don’t like it–going to mess up a functional and equitable system.
Sounds like reparations.