Speech-Holden Huffman

Holden Huffman

Mr. Logsdon

AP English

13 December 2015

Imagine the perfect day.  Maybe it’s shopping at the mall for hours with friends or hanging out at the beach.  Maybe it’s sleeping in all day or chilling in your room playing some video games.  Or maybe it’s following college sports.  Whether it’s cheering on the UK basketball team, or tailgating for a football game, there’s just an amazing feeling associated with viewing college sporting events.  It is estimated that 28.33 million U.S. citizens have attended them, not to mention the millions more watching at home.  As a result, the NCAA and universities make a pretty penny off of all the tickets sold, marketing, viewings, and more, thanks in large part to the players.  While these two are sitting here raking in millions, guess how much of that the players get...NONE.  The people that are the reason for millions of viewers, hundreds of jerseys sold, games selling out, those people, get zero dollars for it.  Instead, they are given a free “college education” and have ridiculously strict NCAA laws forced upon them.  I feel like this deal is not at all fair to the players and I, for many reasons, believe that the players should get paid for their hard work.

          For a student in college, there is plenty of free time.  According to bls.gov, an average student attending a university spends about 3.3 hours per weekday on educational activities (classes).  That is a very little amount of the day put away for education.  This leaves these students plenty of time to hang out, study, do homework, and all that good stuff.  For college athletes, those same opportunities aren’t an option.  Richard Sherman, an All-Star Cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks and Stanford graduate said in an interview regarding this issue, “No, I don’t think college athletes are given enough time to really take advantage of the free education that they’re given.”  He then continues on, talking about how people think student athletes don’t focus on school, saying, “...show me how you are going to get all your work done when after...you get out at 7:30 or so, you got a test the next day, you’re dead tired from practice and you still have to study just as hard as everybody else...”  By Sherman, a credible person with first-hand experience, saying this, it becomes evident that, yes, student athletes do receive free education, but the full potential of that opportunity is never reached do to packed schedules.  So basically, instead of getting paid money for playing for the university, college athletes get a useless education.

          While attending college and increasing your knowledge, most students find a small part-time job during their free time to get some pocket change, making their college experience a bit more fun.  College athletes already wouldn’t have enough time for a job with their busy schedules, but on top of that, it is a NCAA violation for them to get jobs, much less get paid by boosters or fans.  This leaves the players with empty pockets.  Richard Sherman said later on in that same interview, “I can tell you from experience I had negative 40 bucks in my account, and usually my account was in the negatives more times than it was in the positives...You gotta make decisions on whether you get gas for your car or whether you  get the meal for the day.”  This isn’t at all fair to these students.  While some people may say “Well, their scholarship pays for all that they need,” according to Sherman it obviously doesn’t.  Just paying these players some of the millions that the NCAA and the University get would easily solve this issue of money.

          On another note, when you go into a sporting goods store and see a #15 UK basketball jersey, you don’t just think, “Hey, there’s #15’s jersey!”  You think, “Hey, there’s Demarcus Cousins’ or Willie Cauley-Stein’s Jersey.”  Millions of collegiate sports jerseys are sold annually.  The trick is, the jersey has everything but the player’s name on it, making it work in a way so that the player doesn’t have to get paid.  While this makes it technically not the player’s jersey, the consumers very well know whose jersey it is.  An issue similar to this was when EA Sports made video games of college sports.  The teams would have the same players at the same positions, and they would resemble the actual players, but it would say something like “Florida QB #15” instead of Tim Tebow.  Johnathan Franklin, a former UCLA star running back, said in the documentary Schooled: The Price of College Sports, (on the topic of him being in video games uncredited) “They never asked us, they just put us in here.”  So, the players are not only advertised and placed in games uncredited, but aren’t even asked if it is okay with them.  This allows the universities to avoid paying the players.  The creation of NCAA video games has ended because of related issues EA ran into, but jerseys are still being sold in large quantities, with the players getting zero benefits.

          The lack of pay and recognition of these athletes, which I don’t believe some people realize, causes them to do things that aren’t necessarily legal.  Arian Foster, star Running Back for the Houston Texans and former Tennessee Volunteer, says in the same documentary, “There was a point where we had no money or food...the next day, I walk up to the facility and I see my coach pull up in a brand-new Lexus...There were a lot of guys on my team that sold drugs...They’re just trying to eat, man...it was total bull----, but you don’t say anything...that’ll hurt your chances of getting to the next level...it’s a brilliantly devised evil scheme to keep kids quiet.”  This shows that the players don’t get the money they need, but they can’t really say anything about it because it will hurt them, so they stoop down to the level of selling their rings, drugs, etc...

          In conclusion, I know this issue isn’t as big of a deal as world peace or starving children, but it is an issue that is ripping off thousands of students participating in sports at the college level.  I think that this issue has a somewhat simple solution, though.  If every university were to give their players an equal amount of money, which doesn’t even have to be that much, they would have the money that they would need and would be getting paid for the money that they’ve already made for the university.  Another solution would be to help the sports players reach a compromise with their coaches and professors to where they can get a significant amount of time put aside for educational purposes.  This would make their free education more valuable and worth the while.  Ending with this thought, put yourself in the players shoes.  How would you feel if you worked your tail off for the university, both in class and out of class, and you got nothing in return?  How would you feel if your jerseys were being sold by the hundreds nationwide and you’re sitting in your dorm room in the same situation as Richard Sherman, deciding on whether to use your money for gas or a meal?  How would you feel if you were one of them?  Thank you.

Works Cited

Bloch, Hayley. "Topic: College Sports (NCAA)." Www.statista.com. N.p., n.d. Web.

"Charts by Topic: Students." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 26 Oct. 2015. Web.

Schooled: The Price of College Sports. Dir. Ross Finkel, Trevor Martin, and Jonathan Paley. Perf. Kevin Anderson, Jay Bilas, Taylor Branch. Makuhari Media, 2013. Film.

Sports News. “Richard Sherman Student Athlete Education.” Video. Youtube. Youtube, 30 Jan. 2015.    Web.