This was a major point of the guy I talked to today. I watched a Jon Stewart clip he mentioned and he basically broke it down. These guys are marketing and making billions off of the athletes, yet the athletes are reimbursed with nothing more than a scholarship.
It seems the system is setup to protect the interests of the institution and not the players who make the institution profitable?
Where am I going wrong here?
I'm 32 years old, pretty successful in my career, and I'm still paying on my student loans. I think the value of the scholarships given are always understated in this debate.
My solution is this - give the athletes a choice - either take the full, paid scholarship or get paid the equal value of said scholarship (given as a bi-weekly paycheck) and allow them to take student loans out to cover their own education. If they feel they'll eventually go pro, they'll have plenty of cash while they attend school and can repay their own loans with the money they make professionally.
We all get taken advantages by bigger entities. If you work at First Energy, for example, your work is allowing them to makes millions and millions of dollars. Sure, you're being compensated, but are you getting the same share the head honchos up top are getting? My guess is no.
I'm in favor of giving them the option I mentioned and do believe they should have health care benefits, but that's it. Paying them AND giving them a full ride is too much. For as much as people talk about them getting taken advantage of, never forget their participation is OPTIONAL. Basketball players can forego college for the D-League or European Leagues if they don't want to go to college. Although it's not as good, football players have the option of the CFL if they don't want to attend school. If they're good enough, they'll still find their way into the pros.
One final point - unionization can't just be for the money-making sports of college football and basketball. Due to Title IX the benefits have to also be there for athletes participating in women's basketball, softball, baseball, swimming, track and field, etc etc etc. Unionize and watch colleges just start to axe sports programs left and right.
90-95% of collegiate athletes will never go pro and need the education they receive to be successful in their lives. Let's not jeopardize that for the 5-10% star athletes whose work that's taken advantage of leapfrogs them to millions of dollars.