Exploitation is a Two-way Street in College Athletics, but We Offer a Unique Idea

Our Solution Suggests Commitment from DI Colleges and Athletes

All the hoopla swirling around paying DI athletes, presuming that refers to the major, cash generating sports of football along with men’s and women’s basketball, focuses on exorbitant revenues and their relation to the exploitation of student-athletes.

We have no dog in the hunt, but we do wonder what major DI athletes think when the conferences their schools belong to continue to sign outrageously large television contracts giving the schools more and more money to spend on everything except, of course, athlete compensation. Exploitation indeed comes to mind, but who’s exploiting whom?  We think it’s a two-way street.

Think about it.  You are an athlete performing week after week for your school.  Yes, you are getting both an invaluable commodity and opportunity in return — a quality education and the unique chance to demonstrate your skills on college athletics’ biggest stage with sometimes millions of people watching.  What price can you place on each of those?  The first is quantifiable — the cost of a four- or five-year degree, superior coaching and first rate facilities.  Pro-bound athletes have a springboard in place which allows them to leap from high school dreams to the professional ranks.  However, with just a few college athletes advancing to the professional level, college athletics is the competitive pinnacle for most student-athletes.  In either case, should student-athletes be paid for their time and on-the-field exploits?  Should they get a piece of the TV pie the schools capture?  

On the other hand, DI major sports is the only viable access to American amateur athletics’ top rung where all manner of post-athletic career opportunities and life altering options are made available.  When taken full advantage of, DI sports lays out the red carpet for decades to come.   

If you are a DI major college, life in major college sports does not come free.  You pay coaches loads of money to recruit very well and to then produce a product which will put your institution in prime position to pull in windfall alumni bucks, additional freshmen applications, and even more TV money from post-season play such as bowl games and national tournaments.  To accomplish all that, your coaches must go out and attract the best of the best high school athletes and that’s not an inexpensive proposition. 

So, who’s giving and who’s taking?  Does the school or the athlete get the best of the deal?  Pretty much a draw, don’t you think?  Yeah, but here’s the thing which doesn’t get much, if any air time — the long term effects of high-level college sports on the bodies of the athletes.  Everyone, it seems, pays a price. 

There are good and bad points to either side of the pay-athletes-or-not debate, so what is really fair?  Here’s a suggestion that to our knowledge has not been presented:  instead of paying athletes while they are on scholarship, require DI major colleges to provide them with perpetual life and health insurance as their compensation.  Seen an old college athlete walking around lately?  They are seldom without a limp or a slumping shoulder, the not-so-subtle signs of physical over indulgence which often fail to manifest themselves until later in life.  Aren’t four or five years of extremely hard, physical labor worth everlasting coverage?   It’s an idea worth consideration.