The Return of the Student-Athlete
It’s March and the annual college basketball “March Madness” is hitting college campuses, sports networks and business offices across the country. College students set aside homework and other academic projects, TV networks blast an endless barrage of advertising and productivity in corporate offices falls faster than Dow-Jones stock prices. Maybe this is all harmless fun until you realize the actual outcome: the exploitation of gifted Black athletes.
The major sports, football and basketball, are significant revenue generators for a university with modern football stadiums and basketball arenas. Tickets, TV contracts, sales from concessions and parking and logo licensing are big revenue producers. Colleges profit on the backs of talented young men and women and offer very little in return. In major sports, scholarships that lead to college degrees are less than 50 percent of the total student-athlete population and even lower for Black athletes. The US is the only country in the world that turns its young people into sports slaves and addicts.
It’s time for colleges and universities to take back athletics and return them to an appropriate place in the academic experience. It’s time to recognize the return of the student-athlete who plays sports as a complement to academics. However, because college athletics is so tightly linked with the economics of this country, a compromise would be the creation of a super league of universities. Just as Ivy League schools represent the top tier of academics, there would be a top tier league for athletics.
In both football and basketball, there would be a selection for a league of teams based on a historical number of athletes that make it to professional ranks. These teams would be known for their true intent: preparing athletes for a career in professional sports. In football, the super league would have 20 teams; basketball would have 40 teams. The competitive schedules would only include teams in the league. The NCAA would have no jurisdiction over this league; these participants are not student-athletes; they are semi-pro athletes. They would be governed by the same rules of any pro athlete.
The twist would be a “super-fund” created by the participating universities and matched by the respective professional leagues that would go to supporting education for these athletes. Each athlete would be given 5 years of sports eligibility and, if drafted, could turn pro at any time during those 5 years. At the end of 5 years (or sooner), should the athlete fail to make a pro team, the super-fund pays for that athlete to re-enter college as a student.
The super-fund comes from regular season ticket sales, playoff games, TV contracts, licensing of products and the match from the pro leagues. Even though the athlete is not getting paid directly, there would be room and board, training and medical coverage, travel accommodations and year-round access to training facilities.
While this sounds like the current system, the difference would be that the athlete is not going to suffer from delusions about their chances for a pro contract. They are playing in the top semi-pro league; if no pro team is showing interest, it’s time to get out and get a degree.
The athlete should realize that education is the key to his or her future and has 4 years, tuition-free, to get that done. The current system wastes that tuition-free opportunity by making the student sacrifice academics for athletics during the 5-year scholarship period.
For the tens of thousands of other athletes across the country, playing collegiate sports is now for the “love of the game.” College athletics would still provide an outlet for competition and social activities but it is not the focus.
For the “top-shelf” college athlete playing in the super league, it won’t take long to realize any pro potential. The big difference is now they have a chance to develop a productive career should an athletic not be realized.
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