Opinion Graphic
It is that time of year again. NCAA March Madness allows the Wolfpack yet another year of rooting for anyone but Carolina. However, team preferences aside, many students and fans alike forget that college basketball is a billion-dollar industry.
The average ticket price for Monday’s national championship game is $838. Considering they are playing at the University of Phoenix football stadium, you can multiply that number by the 70,000 people expected to be in attendance. This highly anticipated game makes for a nice windfall for the NCAA — so how is it possible that none of the athletes on the court see a dime of that money?
The NCAA’s fundamental argument about why athletes don’t get paid is that college basketball is an “amateur sport.” The NCAA official website states that “maintaining amateurism is crucial to preserving an academic environment in which acquiring a quality education is the first priority.” The notion that these athletes are students first and athletes second has been contested countless times in court and in the press.
The NCAA amateurism policy creates a lucrative business strategy that ensures the money only goes into the hands of a select few.
Intentions of amateurism in college basketball are made quite apparent when everyone involved, except athletes, get paid like it’s a professional sport. As you probably already know, Kevin Keatts recently signed a six-year contract with NC State worth $2.2 million annually.
While this is a lot of money, it doesn’t even come close to the television revenues and marketing rights currently exceeding approximately $700 million in the 2015-16 fiscal year for the NCAA Tournament alone. This figure does not count the revenue generated by regular season games on local, regional and national TV.
The NCAA has sought to justify its restrictions involving student-athlete compensation by urging that they ensure pro-competitiveness. This conclusion was based on opinion surveys that found fans are apparently opposed to compensation for student-athletes. Consumer demand for college basketball may be increasing, but to say it will decrease if athletes are paid is absurd.
No student-athlete compensation gives schools the discretion to pay larger portions of their athletic budgets on recruiting, coaching and training facilities. The amount of money going into these outlets are not appropriate for an amateur sport. The more lavish the facilities, the better the recruiting power; thus, the more student-athletes will attend universities such as NC State and fuel this imbalance.
The expectations and amount of time athletes are expected to spend on their “amateur sport” isn’t consistent with its “education first” claim. The NCAA handbook states that athletes should spend no more than 20 hours per week on basketball-related activities; however, a lawsuit against UNC-Chapel Hill and the NCAA in 2015 approximated the number at around 30 to 40 hours.
Standards for student-athletes to compete include minimum GPA, credit-hour requirements and percentage-of-degree requirements. Student-athletes must reach these benchmarks, or they are threatened with the bench. Travel, off-season conditioning and working on holidays are just a few of the things athletes have to juggle along with full course loads.
I think I can speak on behalf of the Wolfpack that we really appreciate college athletics and by no means think the solution is getting rid of them. I simply think that if the NCAA’s revenue gets bigger and bigger every year, wouldn’t it be fair if the athletes’ slice gets bigger as well?