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Val: Since we have reached the halfway point between the football bowl season and March Madness, now is an appropriate time to address a disturbing Associated Press article I read this week regarding collegiate athletics.
It seems the quarterback at Northwestern University, Kain Colter, has teamed up with the United Steelworkers Union to form the first labor union for college athletes — the College Athletes Players Association. The Steelworkers union has agreed to pay legal bills for the effort to classify student-athletes as employees.
Now, I am the first to admit the NCAA is a dysfunctional organization that is so enamored of political correctness and ripened in hypocrisy that it is tragically funny to watch. Still, I much prefer the NCAA — warts, dysfunction and all — to unionized intercollegiate athletics. Can you imagine the headlines?
“Two-a-Day Workouts Postponed as Salary Negotiations Between BYU Players and Athletic Director Break Down.” “Blue-Chip Recruits Demand More Compensation for Signing.” “Scholarship Athletes Stage Walkout Protest Over Walk-on Athletes Who Are Taking Their Positions.”
For me, the appeal of intercollegiate athletics has always been the drive and motivation of the student-athletes. They are playing for themselves, their families, their teammates and their school. Professional athletes, on the other hand, are playing for money. Yes, they want to win, but their intensity level (except during the playoffs) is a notch or two below the collegians. Exhibit A would be Rudy vs. Greg Ostertagg.
I am the first to admit that college athletics — particularly football and basketball — is big business that rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year. However, the truth is there are only a handful of schools that actually make money on their athletic programs. Most schools end up subsidizing athletics. Why? Because the government and the NCAA require athletic departments to equally fund sports whether they make money or not. In other words, football and basketball at most schools have to generate enough profit to cover budgets for all the “Olympic” or non-revenue sports, in addition to the administrative costs of running the athletic program.
Football and basketball players who are complaining about not getting “paid” for their on-field exploits tend to do pretty well financially. Let’s consider Mr. Colter’s situation. Tuition at Northwestern is $45,000 per year. Total expenses, including room and board, are estimated at $63,000 per year. That doesn’t include the private tutors, counselors, trainers, doctors and sports psychologists that are at his disposal at no cost. Many student-athletes are asked to redshirt a year, so they receive the benefits for five years instead of four. That would mean Mr. Colter’s “salary” for playing football at Northwestern is a measly $315,000 for five years.
I am not saying the NCAA ought not to loosen its purse strings a little and give the athletes some spending money. Or allow athletes to be paid a royalty of sorts when their name, image or likeness is used to sell something like a jersey.
It’s just that football and basketball players already enjoy significant perks and are paid quite handsomely, if only with the potential to get an education. Too often, scholarship athletes display an entitlement mentality that is concerning. I always found it interesting that the players who donated money back to the program most willingly and happily are the walk-on athletes.
Heaven forbid if we have to deal with college athletes who are controlled by the unions. That may be the day I quit watching collegiate athletics altogether.
Donna: One of the most unexpected and enlightening things about working at the Chamber with Val Hale is the consistent education I am receiving regarding collegiate sports. I attended three different universities in three different states before graduating from BYU. I can attest to the fact that the spectators have very little idea of the politics behind the plays.
In one of my apartments I had a college softball player who was a scholarship athlete and another time a swimmer also on scholarship. Both ladies worked hard, studied hard and were grateful for the chance to compete in sports while going to school. In Buffalo we had volleyball and football players in our dorm complex and they similarly worked hard, studied late and got up early for practice. They also had many privileges the rest of the students didn’t get. However, they didn’t expect to get paid above and beyond their scholarships, living expenses, travel expenses and medical care.
While I worked in food services, teaching gigs and other jobs to pay for school, my athlete friends considered their sport the job. As comparable as the hours may be, the situation was not the same. Most college jobs pay minimum wage or a little bit more and students take them for the flexible hours and the experience. If they want to pay college athletes and they want to unionize then I say let them consider the sports a job. Pay them minimum wage and take all the perks off the table. Tuition, room and board, academic tutoring and medical care can now be paid for by the employees of the football team. They can get their own health insurance, pay for their own car, buy their own food and buy tickets to other sporting events like all of their peers. See how long someone is willing to work and go to school with those kinds of wages and hours. Very few college students can say they made $315,000 while attending school.
I think some of the media would like to make this union discussion a ‘David vs Goliath’ story. However, when you pit the United Steelworkers against the NCAA its more of like ‘Clash of the Titans.’ When epic titans go to battle it is the lowly humans who get crushed mercilessly under foot. There will be no small amount of blood shed on football fields and basketball courts if collegiate sports becomes the Colosseum in the battle for unionization.
• Val Hale is president and CEO of the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce. Donna Milakovic is Executive Vice President of the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce.