Students for Sale – The NCAA’s Need for Rebranding in an Connected World

            The NCAA has long ranked as the overarching leadership for thousands of collegiate student athletes, priding itself on its mission of “maintaining athletes as an integral part of the student body and retaining a clear line of demarcation between collegiate and professional sports.”  

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           For many young adults the NCAA has offered them a place to continue their thirst for competition and sports well into their early 20s, while receiving a quality education at a well-respected college or university.  In the past week however, the student athletes upon whom the NCAA rests its laurels, churning in millions of dollars off of broadcast rights, tickets, and merchandise, have finally been given a voice.  The Northwestern University football team took to the legal stage to get their day in court.  They called for an investigation into how much is given by these star student athletes and how little is received.  The ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that Northwestern’s football players should be allowed to unionize should be recognized as an opportunity for the NCAA.  It’s an opportunity to review what values it holds dear and how it wants its brand to be seen by sports fans across the country.  Over the past few years, the NCAA has received one scathing public condemnation after another with college presidents who are supposed to run the NCAA often more concerned with keeping athletic boosters and sports-addicted board members happy than defending academic integrity, or in the awful case of Penn State, the welfare of children. 

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            As an entry-level sports broadcast professional I’ve watched first-hand the race for the sports pot of gold and the ill treatment of those at the bottom of the pile.  Working 80-hour workweeks while being paid for 40, making minimum wage with hiring policies that claim “freelance” with the “option” for full employment to get around benefits and basic employment rights.  I’ve worked under constant reminders that if I don’t agree to these practices that there are hundreds of thousands of other young people willing to take my position and do it for free “just to work in sports,” and if my performance is less than superior I would never make enough to live beyond a paycheck to paycheck state.  Yet the difference between my employment and a college student athlete’s is disappointingly minimal.  A NCAA scholarship is guaranteed for only a year.  Athletes who don’t meet the expectations of their recruitment are told to find another school where they can play.  If the athletes don’t want to leave, their coach has the option to simply not renew their scholarships.  In fact, the sole difference between my role and those of a collegiate athlete lies in the fact that I chose this as a profession, long after I put away my schoolbooks, earned my prized degree, and started off into society with four years of skills, maturity, and a solidified decision on my career path, a path I am free to change at will at any time.  The same can’t be said for revenue-generating college student-athletes who rest uneasy in their classrooms each day.  Scholarships for these athletes exist for one reason: because the school believes they are the ticket to higher revenues and a prestigious reputation, it’s nothing more than a contracted business deal. 

Google “NCAA and unions” and article after article arises asking should we “pay” athletes, but let’s be clear, at no point has anyone involved with the Northwestern players in the case suggested they be paid.  Unions are built upon a foundation of wanting an equal seat at the table of discussion, where management is unwilling to discuss working conditions and employees look for an opportunity to come together to bring change.  The NCAA has lived in the past, a past of one-way communication channels, of do as I say top down leadership, of pushing their products on the field and court onto every TV and media outlet, while turning a blind eye when those very same products lose out on educational opportunities.   Kain Colter, a senior on last year’s Northwesthern team, testified that there were certain classes he was discouraged from taking because they conflicted with football practice, while the University of North Carolina is still reeling from an investigation revealing student athletes there were enrolled in classes that didn’t even exist.  For the term “student athlete” to have a meaning the NCAA would have to put education before sports, something it claims in theory, but fails to practice in reality.

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The NCAA remains wedged in ancient times as emphasized with its latest round of public relations attempting to strike fear in the public, and student athletes that play for non-revenue generating sports, that the end is near.  On “Face the Nation” NCAA President Mark Emmert issued stern warnings about how disastrous it would be for all of college sports if the Northwestern case propels forward.  Never mind the fact that Emmert has commented for two years about his own desire to see the full cost of a scholarship funded, yet the topic still remains “under discussion.”  Meanwhile the NCAA takes no issue with spending millions in legal fees to fight a lawsuit to allow athletes to share in any licensing revenue in which their likeness is used, a share of which could more than offer them a full term education.  Nor does it seem to recognize the hypocrisy of coaches like Nick Saban (Alabama football) and Mike Krzyzewski (Duke men’s basketball) making in excess of $7 million a year, or the NCAA receiving a billion dollar television contract for the NCAA Tournament and new College Football Playoffs (see: http://bit.ly/QKRTY)

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The fact is student athletes are often getting money outside of their scholarship funned to them.  There’s no question when they arrive on campus with fancy cars or buy their girlfriends over the top engagement rings that these material goods came from some sort of back door shady booster or agent clinging to them like a Willy Wonka golden ticket.  Why not bring this behavior out on the open, employ an open door conversation and create an environment where everyone helps earn and reap a piece of the pie?  Make scholarships good for life, give athletes the money they deserve from their own autographs and likenesses, and teach them how to use this money effectively so they don’t blow it all in one sitting in the first professional setting they enter.  If the NCAA wants to be seen as an entity that cares about students and education then it must stand behind those values in every action it takes.  The NCAA has hidden behind the term “student athlete” for long enough, an escape route for the organization to call upon whenever a problem arises. 

Times are changing, communication channels and digital platforms have given life to students, parents, coaches, communities, and businesses sharing in discussions, airing their grievances or allegiances and deciding on what is best for their future.  The NCAA can leap into this new environment and acknowledge its need for change, seeking its own education from consumers and athletes to better support its business, or it can hunker down into its outdated mentality and watch the rest of the world move on without it.  The NCAA must acknowledge the storm of change is coming, stop fixating on trying to stop its progress, and instead seek higher ground.