Privatize College Athletics: A Chance to Eliminate Conflict between Universities and the NCAA once and for all

One of the largest questions that the NCAA faces from season to season seems simple yes-or-no question; “Should student-athletes be paid?”

With the recent announcements that the NCAA will end its relationship with EA Sports and that six current NFL Players are filing lawsuits against NCAA and EA Sports for allowing for the players’ likenesses and the likenesses of all college football players, to be used in the NCAA Football video game series without compensation, this question is once again being raised.

On top of football, we have a looming problem with NCAA Basketball and the NBA and the transition of players from one level to the next. Players are given scholarships to go to a university, ideally to complete their educations, but then remain with the schools only one year before signing with an NBA Basketball team, thus not finishing their degrees and rendering the money spent on one year of schooling for the player, wasted.

Then we have the problems inside the classroom. While often not spoken of because the topic is considered taboo, professors of student-athletes all over the country are pressured into (whether coerced by a member of an athletics program or through plain guilt of not wanting to be responsible if a student-athlete is unable to play or worse, loses his/her scholarship) making sure that the student-athletes are given ample grades so that the student-athlete may continue to play for the NCAA. Meanwhile, university students that are not student-athletes can comprehend classroom material tenfold compared to the student-athletes with inflated marks. Once all the students from the university have graduated, if the student-athlete with higher marks than he/she deserved is hired by a company because of his/her degree, and does not meet the needs of the business, the employer assumes that all students from that university were held to the same standard to obtain their degrees. The employer no longer hires from that school because the employer assumes that students with the same degree as the student-athlete all fall below the quality of employee for which the employer is searching.

In addition, tax dollars from United States citizens everywhere are spent on college coaches that could otherwise be spent on the welfare of the states. In 40 states, the highest paid public employee is a college coach; 27 football coaches, 12 basketball coaches, and 1 hockey coach. Sadly, the majority of the population is ignorant to the impact of college athletics on their lives, even though for most of them, it affects them more than they could imagine.

And while the negatives of college athletics are easily offered, there are many positives.

            My all-time favorite family event (yes, even greater than opening presents on Christmas morning and Thanksgiving dinner) is a summer barbeque. I love the smell of charcoal, the taste of hamburgers and hotdogs, and the sound of laughter amongst family and friends and there is only one event that can compete. Closely related is the football tailgate which remains one of the greatest traditions of all time.

            Without stable football programs (and basketball programs, as I hope to one day discover with my girlfriend and her family, specifically her father who is an alum of Duke University), we would have no reason to tailgate. We have student-athletes of whom we should be thankful.

            In addition, university bookstores often sell sporting apparel in the form of jerseys, hats, and the ever popular foam finger.  Apparel sales would plummet if athletic programs did not exist. And even Nick Saban cannot take all the credit for what happens on the field, after all his student-athletes are the ones sending and receiving vicious blows.

            I have not even touched on the fact that millions of employees across the United States have jobs (even part-time jobs like mine) that without the efforts of athletics programs and by extension student-athletes would not exist.

            While town hall style debates on the subject like the one on Costas Tonight on April 4, 2012 could continue and civil litigation will continue to be taken to court, I believe there is a much better direction that college athletics programs and college-aged athletes should head to ensure their future.

            The NCAA believes that it may legitimately collapse if student-athletes start receiving compensation, and they have a valid argument. Thousands, if not millions of student-athletes have passed through or otherwise have been a part of the NCAA and if the courts rule on behalf of Eric O’Bannon and his new found “teammates”, the NCAA could be responsible for paying hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to every single student-athlete, current or former. With the potential for millions of dollars being paid to former and current athletes, three questions come to my mind: “Where would the money come from?”, “What if the money runs out?” and “What would that hold for future student-athletes and college athletics programs as a whole?”

            As you can see based on the title of this post, my idea suggests privatizing college athletics. By privatizing college athletics, college-aged athletes would no longer be subject to the rules of the NCAA which are designed to keep a fair balance between the average college student and his/her student-athlete counterpart.
            First of all, separating the two, separating the two allows for the payment of players which eliminates the need for Parts III and IV of Form 08-3a, a form that all NCAA athletes are required to sign if they want to play, and the backbone of Jay Bilas’s argument for pay-to-play. Parts III and IV deal specifically with the amateur status of an athlete and the promotion of NCAA Championships and Events.

            Of course, there’s a catch. Privatized college athletics programs would be considered entities separate from the universities they used to belong. In fact, they would not be considered “college athletic programs” merely semi-professional programs next to or in the middle of universities.

            Now that they are separate entities, college-aged athletes would no longer be entitled to scholarships directly from their former universities, only pay, which the athlete could use to pay from his/her education if he/she so chooses.

            Without the student being attached to the athlete, there is no longer a conflict of interest for professors who would have otherwise inflated grades to help student-athletes remain eligible.

In addition, this eliminates the difficulties between the NCAA and the NBA regarding players that play for a single season before entering the NBA Draft and therefore wasting a year’s worth of scholarship.

Tax dollars go back in the pockets of state governments and in turn the governments could respond by contributing money toward alternative causes relevant to each state, including the possibility of allocating additional funds toward public universities that would have seen a decrease in revenue from campus bookstores and the like that no longer sell collegiate sports apparel.

Job growth would likely increase, due to the opening up of player agent possibilities and therefore legal consul that would be needed to represent the teams.

The looming question here is “Who would buy the programs?” The glory of it all is that university athletic programs have donor programs. If the new semi-professional programs incorporated and offered to allow the donors to buy stock, instead of contributing to the programs, the programs would be well on their ways to privatizing and the donors still remain attached the programs that once belonged to the university.

Finally, as we’ve seen in the English Premier League, corporate sponsors are valuable tools. Corporations could purchase the remaining shares needed to keep the teams functioning and there is no incentive to alert logos by the new teams because the goodwill held by the logos is much too valuable. If Coca-Cola bought the athletics programs from the University of North Carolina, fans who would normally buy tickets would no longer be satisfied if the Tarheels colors were red and white.

Corporations have the added bonus of it being a marketing deal. “The Crimson Tide” owned by “Tide” would be an invaluable asset to “Tide” if the “Crimson Tide” program continued to win national championships like it has in recent history.

I’ll admit it. I have not ironed out all of the details. I don’t even know my own opinion on the topic but it may be a way to keep college-aged athletes competing and entertaining schools throughout the country. I believe that this option provides the most benefits to everyone in the great United States.

Please comment. I would love to hear your opinions of my idea.