End the college sports con game
Florida should join the campaign against the myth that college sports is for amateurs.
State Rep. Chip LaMarca, a Republican from Lighthouse Point, last week filed House Bill 287, called the Student Athlete Achievement Act. Starting in July, it would allow Florida college athletes to hire agents and make money from promotional and licensing deals. Rep. Kionne McGhee, a Democrat from Miami, has filed a similar bill, HB 251, called the Fair Pay to Play Act. It would take effect in 2023.
The proposals follow the passage in California last month of the Fair Pay to Play Act, which similarly allows college athletes to be paid for the use of their name, image and likeness. The law takes effect in 2023.
Neither the California law, nor the Florida House proposals, would allow colleges to pay players, as they should. But they are a needed first step in the journey toward fairness.
Right now, for example, LaMarca says a collegiate tennis player cannot create a YouTube tennis channel and profit off the advertisements. However, a student on an academic scholarship can make a YouTube channel about his specialty and keep the advertising money.
“This is about freedom and the rights of every student, whether athletic or not,” he said.
For decades, college administrators, coaches and the National Collegiate Athletic Association have warned about creeping professionalism, holding on to the antiquated notion of “student-athletes.”
College athletics, meanwhile, has become a $14 billion industry, with everybody profiting except the players.
Dabo Swinney, Clemson’s head football coach, just got a 10-year, $91 million contract — all the money guaranteed. Jimbo Fisher left Florida State University for a $75 million contract at Texas A&M — also fully guaranteed.
By contemporary standards, University of Miami Head Football Coach Manny Diaz works for chump change at $3.1 million a year. Dan Mullen gets $6.1 million at the University of Florida. Needless to say, all make much more than the presidents of their respective universities.
Players, however, face NCAA penalties if they take $100 for an autograph-signing session. Those from poor families can’t accept money for airline tickets home, even for a funeral.
As NCAA president, Mark Emmert makes about $3 million a year to preside over this con game. Predictably, Emmert worries that the California law will create “a new kind of professionalism.” While the NCAA seeks an “appropriate way” to allow compensation, Emmert opposes “unregulated markets” and the idea that studentathletes are employees.
Some of those students tested the idea a few years ago. Northwestern University’s football players voted to unionize and bargain collectively. The National Labor Relations Board denied the players’ petition, but the NLRB did not rule on the question of whether “student-athletes” are employees.
The players made valid points. The increasing time they had to spend on football prevented them from taking more challenging courses and thus restricted their chances of making a living outside of football. If they sustained injuries that required expensive medical care after they finished playing, shouldn’t Northwestern have to pay?
We can anticipate some of the arguments in Florida against this change. Bigname schools could offer more money and will have an unfair advantage in recruiting. Minor sports, such as soccer and wrestling, couldn’t offer any money and would lose more ground to football and basketball. Sleazy agents could fleece naive 18-year-olds.
In fact, big schools already have a recruiting edge. HB 287 and HB 251 actually might make things fairer. A booster at Florida Atlantic or Florida International, for example, could propose an endorsement deal that UF or FSU couldn’t.
As for the danger from agents, they would have to be licensed in Florida.
But there’s a better, more creative way to align academics with the new world of college sports.
Bill Russell won two college basketball championships with the University of San Francisco and 11 pro titles with the Boston Celtics. Decades ago, Russell proposed that colleges offer a major not just in sports management, but in sports. In addition to core courses, students would learn how to hire agents, manage finances and even deal with reporters.
How would that be different from someone who studies communications to work in journalism? It would be more honest and helpful than steering athletes to the easiest courses just to keep them eligible. That approach exploits the majority of athletes, who never will play professionally.
Backers of California’s law acknowledge that they delayed implementation to prod the NCAA. LaMarca’s bill would provide an even bigger boost by making the change almost immediately.
A national policy for all 1,200 campuses would be simpler and better, though. This month, an NCAA committee is scheduled to recommend changes that would allow compensation in addition to scholarships.
Given our state’s prominence in college sports, the Florida Senate and Gov. Ron DeSantis should join the push for an updated policy toward athletes. Other states are considering similar legislation. If enough act quickly, the establishment will have to respond.
After the push for a union at Northwestern, the NCAA made changes that helped athletes. Among other things, they now can transfer more easily, the same freedom coaches have to switch jobs.
But added compensation — while in college and later — remains the unresolved issue. Even those who don’t follow college sports can embrace the idea. You simply have to believe in fairness.