Even better: de-emphasize high school sports. Treat them as what they should be: an extra-curricular opportunity for students to have fun and get exercise, and nothing more than that.
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Paying college football players $millions
- Thread starter We Never Know
- Start date
I did "student level fieldwork." I did co-op work terms all through school; all of them were paid.
All my friends who got jobs in professors' labs doing research were also paid. Same with friends who worked in on-campus pubs.
As a general rule of thumb, if someone did work that helped to generate revenue for the university, they got paid. I see no issue with that.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
You are just angry because Gonzaga lost last night. I am merely very disappointed
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
On a serious note that is unlikely to happen because so many people, including universities, colleges, and even some high schools, make quite a bit of money off of sports.
College sports are a high demand commodity. The best that we can hope for is some sort of reform.
Erebus
Well-Known Member
All of this really reminds me of workfare and abuse of apprenticeship schemes here in the UK. Workfare essentially puts unemployed people into employment in return for their welfare money. So they're working a job but aren't considered to be working a job? That's a pretty sweet deal for the companies using the schemes, not so much for the people effectively getting less than minimum wage for their work.
A lot of apprenticeships are actually just regular jobs that pay less and don't guarantee employment. My brother fell foul of one of those. He worked full time cleaning dishes in a hotel for about 1/3 of the minimum wage. When his apprenticeship was about to end and he'd get a regular wage, the hotel fired him and took on a new apprentice. Rinse and repeat.
It's also very reminiscent of artists working for exposure. It's certainly a lot cheaper to pay artists in exposure so why would you even consider giving them actual money?
I would advise caution about arguing that people shouldn't be paid for doing the same work as somebody who is being paid. There's absolutely no guarantee that your own job won't end up being treated the same way later down the line. Better not to set the precedent in my opinion.
A lot of apprenticeships are actually just regular jobs that pay less and don't guarantee employment. My brother fell foul of one of those. He worked full time cleaning dishes in a hotel for about 1/3 of the minimum wage. When his apprenticeship was about to end and he'd get a regular wage, the hotel fired him and took on a new apprentice. Rinse and repeat.
It's also very reminiscent of artists working for exposure. It's certainly a lot cheaper to pay artists in exposure so why would you even consider giving them actual money?
I would advise caution about arguing that people shouldn't be paid for doing the same work as somebody who is being paid. There's absolutely no guarantee that your own job won't end up being treated the same way later down the line. Better not to set the precedent in my opinion.
You are just angry because Gonzaga lost last night. I am merely very disappointed
Who?
Augustus
…
Not in any other profession in the world. Just American Football.
Why should they not be allowed to enter the draft directly? Why force them into 3 years of unpaid labour?
BS
You would be happy to watch your family suffer while you were denied tens of millions of dollars that you could have earned?
Nonsense.
Yes and if you starred in a play they filmed and sold for billions you would want, and deserve, your cut.
Just like Hollywood actors do.
Entertainers, which athletes essentially are, are extremely way overpaid. It's mostly through corporate endorsements, though, with athletes.
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
That aspect would be fair.
Not mutually exclusive categories.
If a student with a part-time job in the campus library can be a paid employee, why can't a football player?
Kooky
Freedom from Sanity
I don't begrudge any successful athlete their earnings.
Their work clearly provides a lot of value to their employer, with the NFL and its member teams making many millions in TV revenues, merchandize etc. allowing its management class to pay themselves generous salaries (though, of course, the actual management salaries of the NFL are kept secret from the public).
https://www.kansascity.com/sports/nfl/kansas-city-chiefs/article225279155.html
In addition, professional sports is hardly a lifetime career, as most athletes are only going to be active for a small portion of their career, commonly retiring when most regular people's careers are only starting to take off, so unless a star athlete can parley his or her success on the field into a lucrative career off the field (training, management etc.) or a related industry (entertainment, politics) their ability to earn that kind of money would be fairly limited.
Their work clearly provides a lot of value to their employer, with the NFL and its member teams making many millions in TV revenues, merchandize etc. allowing its management class to pay themselves generous salaries (though, of course, the actual management salaries of the NFL are kept secret from the public).
https://www.kansascity.com/sports/nfl/kansas-city-chiefs/article225279155.html
In addition, professional sports is hardly a lifetime career, as most athletes are only going to be active for a small portion of their career, commonly retiring when most regular people's careers are only starting to take off, so unless a star athlete can parley his or her success on the field into a lucrative career off the field (training, management etc.) or a related industry (entertainment, politics) their ability to earn that kind of money would be fairly limited.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
It takes a while for football players to mature. Even the draft is very iffy. The NFL uses the collegiate system as a free education device. Perhaps they should be taxed a bit for their use of that resource. I do not think that we would see students making millions except for the very rare exception. "Students" that are there for the chance to go pro do deserve to get paid for their time at college.
Probably not going to be millions of dollars. The pay will be closer to that of AAA baseball at smaller colleges and a bit more at larger ones. But I agree that it is time to compensate the players since this is a multi-billion dollar industry.
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Some do, some don't. I don't have an issue per say but the trade off is gaining experience in one's selected major that he or she can take to their first employer. Students don't walk away empty-handed either way.
"Some do, some don't" what?
So a college football player only gets their end of the bargain if they get their degree?
Students who get academic scholarships aren't expected to work for free as a TA or lab assistant; why would we expect students who get athletic scholarships to work for free?
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
Gonzaga shows how small colleges can succeed at college sports. Small colleges usually cannot afford a first rate football program. Everything is more expensive when it comes to football. Much larger teams, larger venues, larger medical costs, very large coaching costs. (The highest paid state employee in the majority of states is a college football coach). Basketball is quite the bargain in comparison. And a lot of money can still be maid if one gets invited to the NCAA toournament.
Gonzaga is a small private college in eastern Washington that years ago developed a winning basketball program. They were at first frequent Cinderella teams during March Madness. They eventually became perennial attendees. This year they went in with the highest ranking of any team. They were the odds on favorite to win, but they did not pull it off in the final game. The college still pulled in a ton of money from being in this tournament. As a college the only thing that Gonzaga is known for is its basketball program.
Gonzaga University - Wikipedia
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I guess we are about to find out that will put the issue to rest.
Are college athletes employees? Supreme Court mulls compensation for student players
Too bad it can't be known for its academic standards.
"the NCAA caps the money schools may offer student athletes"
The issue as I understand it is not whether or not they should be paid but whether the mandate from an organization that limits their pay severely is constitutional or not.
Of course there are expected consequences to ruling that the NCAA can't do that.
Not being a constitutional lawyer, if the sport is really an amateur sport, then coaches etc should not be paid megabucks but according to a different standard.
I think it may vary from school to school. I know some schools didn't pay their graduate teaching assistants. Likewise, student teachers typically go unpaid (or at least that's how it was 20-30 years ago; not sure about now). I got paid as a graduate TA, but it wasn't really that much. I still had to work another job to make ends meet.
Of course, regarding student athletes, there was another movie about college sports called One On One (with a fictitious university named "Western University," just like in Blue Chips). The student athletes were given jobs so they could be paid, but they weren't real jobs. The main character was given a job of "watering the athletic field," but there were automatic sprinklers, so he really didn't have to do anything except just watch them come on. Another person was given a job of "keeping alligators out of the gym."
Of course, I'm talking about Canada, where we have reasonable minimum wage laws.
Any work for the university or in an internship that a student does as a part of their course of study has to be paid at least at minimum wage unless the work is purely for educational reasons (including that it doesn't do anything to generate revenue).