NCAA Athletes Are Finally Getting Paid
In the movie The Usual Suspects, Keyser Soce says, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist". A similar sentiment, about an organization as wicked as Satan himself, would be, "The greatest trick the NCAA ever pulled was convincing the public that a scholarship was fair compensation for their athletes."
The price of a college diploma is skyrocketing, and in 2024, the pursuit of this piece of parchment can leave someone in debt for over twenty years. When the context of reality is hidden from the public, the average Joe might agree that getting this diploma free of charge is all the payment an athlete deserves.
When the entire picture is shown, however, it would be hard for anyone to make this case. Imagine a restaurant that serves five-star dishes, where even celebrities have to get on a waiting list. Now imagine the Michelin-rated head chef being compensated with free food instead of money. One could only dream of getting that food for free, so why isn't a medium rare filet good compensation for a world-class chef?
The reason is that it's unfair to compensate an employee who generates millions for a business with a few thousand dollars, even if the retail value of that compensation is tenfold. So too is it unfair to compensate an athlete who generates millions by giving them a few thousand dollars in framed paper that retails for hundreds of thousands.
Players Have The NIL
The NCAA saw the writing on the wall. They were being sued on several fronts, by athletes who had been exploited for the gain of universities, but not compensated. They couldn't deceive the public much longer, and so they allowed players to pursue payment outside of the team.
The NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) rule allowed athletes to sell themselves as spokespeople for businesses to the highest bidders and not lose eligibility. This was a win-win decision for colleges because the players could get paid (some of them millions) for the revenue they generated, but the schools themselves didn't have to pay a nickel.
Colleges like Alabama and Florida State could continue to make billions (with a B) off the sweat of their student-athletes, and they no longer had to look like the bad guy, since they were letting the kids get jobs off campus. They continued to fool the public, but the courts were buying what the NCAA was selling.
Justice For All
The settlement from a class action lawsuit known as House v. NCAA has the overseers of college sports responsible for paying out $2.75 billion to athletes who competed before the NIL deal was passed in July 2021. It also creates a revenue-sharing model that would allow each school to pay up to $20 million per year to their student-athletes.
This may still be just a drop in the bucket for schools like Ohio State, whose athletics department brought in $279.5 million in 2023, but it is a start. Eventually, athletes will form a union and demand a bigger piece of the pie. The NCAA spin team will surely make sure the students are vilified for taking this step, and there are likely some who will eat the BS without asking questions.
The NBA players share 50% of revenue with the league and NFL players collect 48%. Inevitably this settlement and subsequent union organization will lead to a salary cap in the NCAA and will force revenue sharing not just with the players, but between schools. Not doing this would lead to a huge imbalance of power in college athletics.
If you still want to be one of the fools who thinks college athletes shouldn't get paid, you better not defend the schools making money from sports. A school like Michigan in Ann Arbor already collects nearly $2 billion in tuition. Instead of vilifying universities for raising rates and backing the loan companies who gouge students with compounded interest, the NCAA will have you turn your anger towards the kids making them an extra $200-500 million per year.
The devil may have fooled the world, but he's gotten nothing on the outfit referred to in The Program by linebacker Alvin Mack as "The N.C. Double A**holes". They have good people convinced that their form of slave labor is just. Don't consume anything they put in front of you. Celebrate this win, and defend these kids with all your might.
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