March Madness has been replaced by Athlete Madness during this year’s NCAA Basketball Championships.
While Connecticut’s upstart Huskies left the hardwood tonight crowned as the 2014 Men’s Champions, the issues dogging American university sports are just reaching a tipping point.
You’ve heard them all by now I am sure. Northwestern’s football players earning the court approved right to formalize a union. Kentucky’s one-and-done recruiting strategy that essentially offers a quick path to millions. Concussions. Academic fraud. Rogue boosters. Even more rogue agents. Coaches abandoning recruits. Video games featuring athlete likenesses with no compensation. The issues are swirling around like a full court press.
For me the issue could be ironed out if a sense of equity was installed. Why can Duke’s basketball coach earn $ 9 million annually, yet a player can’t eat a booster bought burger? Why can coaches jump to their next job with no repercussions, yet a player must lose a season in their prime for doing the same?
I don’t believe the players should be paid. They in effect already are. I don’t think players should get a cut of TV or sponsorship deals. But I do believe they should be able to sell their autographs, secure personal sponsors, or get a job based on their fame. Their institution is benefitting immensely from the brand they are building. Why shouldn’t they?
Yes, I know I have opened a can of worms that might be impossible to police. But imagine telling a student on a music scholarship they can’t earn a few bucks in a weekend band. Or a computer science student that they can’t write code for a local startup. Or an academic standout to forget about that well paid summer job.
The NCAA is long past being an “amateur” pursuit, much as the Olympics have. Brazenly, why shouldn’t a player’s father get $ 100,000 to steer his daughter to a certain lacrosse school? What’s immoral about leveraging your skills for financial gain? Why shouldn’t a family who invested in their prodigy for over a decade see some potential return? Isn’t that the American Way?
College athletics is an amazing cultural institution, yet fraught with controversy. But like any organization, they need to realize their people are their best asset.