Meet the demands of college athletes before the seasons start

Time has almost run out for colleges and universities to decide whether or not football can be safely played this fall. They have to quit moving the goal posts.

As of July 29, college campuses nationwide had a total of more than 6,600 coronavirus cases. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted Aug. 2 that another 19,000 Americans would die from COVID-19 within 20 days.

The NCAA has failed to lead, placing the nation’s college football programs in untenable positions. And now, student-athletes are rebelling against the powerful organization, threatening to boycott games if it doesn’t meet their demands.

Two of those demands are having a third party to enforce player-approved health and safety standards, and medical insurance for sports-related issues, including for COVID-19, for six years after their NCAA eligibility ends.

If there is to be a football season, the NCAA must find a way to balance player safety with the playing of the games, which generate revenue to cover almost all other sports. Generally, the only profitable college teams are football and/or men’s basketball.

Should they end the football season before it begins in order to reduce the potential spread of the COVID-19 virus? ESPN said a lost season would wipe out $4.2 billion in revenue. If that happens, the implications would go far beyond the football field. It would threaten the economic models of the NCAA, colleges and universities, forcing administrators to scramble to make ends meet.

For example, Stanford University announced it would have to cut 11 varsity sports to balance its athletics budget.

Or should the NCAA roll the dice on the future of the pandemic, risking the entire season?

The Colorado state auditor’s office released an 87-page report on July 27, based on budget analysis of all the state’s college athletic programs between 2013 and 2019.

Among its findings: The state’s three Division I sports programs (CU, Colorado State University and University of Northern Colorado) in 2019 spent a combined $170 million on their athletic programs. But combined revenue was only a little over $120 million, meaning a combined loss of nearly $50 million.

Pre-pandemic, CU’S varsity teams lost increasing amounts of money mainly because of high salaries for administrators and coaches, and for recruiting expenses. The average salary of a PAC-12 head football coach is well over $3 million. The PAC-12 commissioner makes over $4 million.

According to the auditor’s report, in 2019 at CU, the football team made a profit of $13.3 million based on $43 million in revenue and $29.6 million in expenses. But the entire athletic budget incurred a whopping $15.7 million deficit. The football program generates revenue primarily from media rights, ticket sales, contributions/in kind and royalties.

I’ve seen all this from the inside. I taught “Sports and the Law” for many years at the University of Denver plus one year at CU. I also served as chair of CU’S Intercollegiate Athletics Subcommittee for about eight years, during which the full athletics budget shortfall was less than $2 million a year. Thus the athletic department needed additional institutional support.

The college football system is fragile. For example, if just one of the Power 5 (ACC, Pac 12, Big Ten, SEC, Big 12) conferences drops out this fall, that would further shorten the season, and prevent the Division I playoffs and the crowning of a national champion. It also could end the entire season.

Colleges may not be telling athletes the full story about the risk that COVID-19 poses to them, their families and their communities so they can make an informed decision about whether or not to play this season.

College athletes should be able to skip this season without fear of reduction or cancellation of their scholarships, or retaliation from coaches.

In the bigger picture, a longoverdue shakeup should come to the NCAA, which has run college sports with all the compassion of

Vlad the Impaler for many years. Pandemic or not, major changes are coming to college football and other sports. It all began in recent years when the courts sided with college athletes, who demanded the right to earn money from the use of their names, images and likenesses on things such as jerseys, endorsements and stipends.

That may have begun the NCAA’S downfall. Today, college football players are demanding more protection from the coronavirus, and other major financial and equity concessions from their schools.

The season should not start until player demands are reasonably met and there’s a more predictable way to safely play during a pandemic.

Jim Martin is a past statewide member of the University of Colorado Board of Regents who has lived in Boulder since 1961, was a smallbusiness owner for 40 years, an adjunct law professor and a public trustee.