by Kent Sterling
It’s been 19 years since Ed O’Bannon played college basketball, and it might be another 19 before a ruling in his lawsuit becomes enacted.
Over the course of the last week, I have heard the following quote at least a dozen times, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” It has been used to describe the need for reparations to African-Americans whose ancestors were slaves, the plight of gays in Uganda, and the NCAA business model that has championed the canard of amateurism as a primary audience magnet.
Over the course of the last three weeks, many bizarre justifications for the NCAA’s refusal to allow athletes to profit from the licensing of their own image have been proferred during the Ed O’Bannon trial, but the most ludicrous was offered during the testimony of Dr. Daniel Rubinfeld, the NCAA’s chief economist. He claimed that the popularity of college football and men’s college basketball is due to the amateur status of the athletes.
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My head almost popped off when I read his supposed belief that college sports are more popular than minor league sports because fans appreciate those players who are engaged in competition because of their love of the game, rather than cash. Why those same fans overlook the exorbitant salaries paid to coaches as opposed to the meager wages of professors is a question that prompts incoherent mumblings.
An extension of the NCAA’s logic about the value of amateurism would be that English classes where students love the class so much that they actually go into their own pockets to attend would be even more popular on television.
I’ve heard the “magic of amateurism” argument before, and I have always felt insulted by those who made it. Just because illogic is spoken by smart people doesn’t make it true or right.
People enjoy college football and men’s college basketball, buy jerseys and tickets, and watch on television by the millions because of a sense of belonging to a specific university either through current or previous attendance, or through residence within that geographic region. There is also an issue of success that drives interest that has nothing at all to do with whether an athlete receives money in a trust for their licensing that is released upon graduation.
There is also a measure of the quality of play that is brought to bear. There is no minor league football to speak of, and minor league basketball has long been a disorganized mess. College football is a de facto minor league, as is college basketball. Minor league baseball is more popular than college baseball because players in minor league baseball are affiliated with a popular major league franchise, and the baseball is played at a higher level.
Arguments made by the NCAA in the O’Bannon trial have been ridiculous to the point that it’s impossible to believe anyone could make them straight-faced. Amateurism as a siren song for fans is among the nuttiest, and the assertion that fans will be distressed or repelled by players sharing in the exploitation of their images is not only unsupportable – it shows the low level of esteem these autocrats have for their audience.
Discovering truth always involves following the money, and the money leads to the core of why sustaining the status quo is so important to the member institutions of the NCAA. Cash builds buildings, and buildings allow a school to gain prestige, and prestige attracts more students at a higher tuition rate, and that prolongs the tenure of the administrators who run the universities that run the NCAA.
The O’Bannon trial will be resolved in the short term by the ruling of U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken, and then there will be a set of appeals that will stretch for years regardless of who wins because the NCAA wants current rules to remain in place as long as possible, and O’Bannon knows he is right. No one will back down.
For the NCAA, the game is to kick this can down the street for as long as they can. With a little good lawyering, NCAA president Mark Emmert will be able to retire without presiding over the coming sea change that occurs when that oft quoted arc of justice finally bends toward the athletes doing the work resulting in huge revenues, bloated salaries, and shiny buildings for those in charge.
This is nonsense. First, multiple people have attempted to form leagues at this level where players were paid and they have all been unsuccessful. Second, virtually every school that has been under investigation for cheating and/or paying players has suffered a drop in major donor giving and season ticket sales.
But all of that overlooks the draw of college sports. There is an identification with the team, but that is because of the fact that these are students playing a game in their spare time. If you think there is no problem with paying players, you should get some people together and start a league. You could get sponsorships from all of the TV stations that lost out in bidding for NCAA games and you would get better players because you could pay them directly. But you would find out like so many have before you, that no one wants to watch non-students playing. They go to support their local university.
Last, but not least, you overlook the impact on society at large if O’Bannon wins his suit. Beyond the fact that competitive sports build better citizens, numerous studies show that the shared experience of rooting for your fellow students in a sporting event is a big part of what keeps alumni identifying with their university and maintains their financial support and personal interest. Tony Blair recently wrote in his autobiography about how American colleges were far ahead of the rest of the world in every measurable category and gave credit for the way we wisely kept our alumni interested in their schools. He specifically talked about how athletics helped accomplish that and how he hoped to move England away from the club system at the college level to accomplish just that. You are talking about giving away one of the most successful features of our higher education system and changing athletes from part timers who are primarily students into hired workmen and you don’t think anyone will notice.
The assertion that amateurism drives interest is lunacy. If athletes were allowed to control their own images, nothing would change other than who was allowed to profit from their use. Stadia would be filled on Saturdays, and alums would chomp on cigars under canopies hung from $500,000 motor homes.
Justice will be done, and cash will go to those who earn it.
That would be great if College Athletics were truly sports where students were playing for the love of the game “in their spare time” that is exactly what college sports should be, but College sports has become a money making machine where student Athletes are Athletes first and the student part is just for show. The time expectations that College Athletic programs have do not allow the “students” to attend and study for challenging classes that will allow students to become Engineers, Doctors and Lawyers. The rate of Post Graduate Degrees by Student Athletes is atrocious their “academic achievements” are pathetic and are always achieved in spite of and not because of their participation in highly competitive athletic programs. Put in a maximum number of hours that students can spend on organized team activities and training for their sport on a weekly basis and then students could truly be students first and Athletes second. But todays student athletes are not Amateurs, not because they would not like to be, but because the school programs do not allow it because of the expectations that they have of those students, and those Colleges and Universities are making billions on it and treat is like a business.
There are limits on hours spent in organized team activities, but it’s very difficult to get kids dedicated to excellence in athletics to cease that pursuit on their own.