Colleges Sell Souls If Players Paid

Paying college basketball players would be selling out the mission of universities. It would be trading in the soul and principles of higher education that benefit the many in exchange for pampering an elite minority.

This groundswell around the country that college basketball (and football players) should be paid for their sweat is a tawdry idea that cheapens the value of a college education in favor of what is an ever-escalating notion that just about the most important thing that a school can do is qualify for the NCAA tournament in March.

Being a college athlete is not a job. Being a college athlete is being part of an extracurricular activity sanctioned by a college. Participation in a sport is a privileged opportunity exended to those who are able to mantain a minimum standard in the classroom, an activity that is supposed to be secondary to time spent in class, doing homework, and learning.

It is absurd to suggest paying college athletes competing in revenue producing sports at all. It is positively arrogant, as has been advanced in some quarters, that entire teams of non-revenue-producing sports, such as track, volleyball, softball, golf or tennis be wiped out in order to give athletic departments the money needed to pay basketball and football players. Such a plan resembles a Republican party tax proposal– tax the poor to give more breaks to the rich.

When are colleges actually going fight back against the gradual professionalization of these games instead of weakly acquiescing to every alteration in rules that corrupts the premise for their existence? Colleges, in several cases dating back 150 or more years, long before there was an NCAA, before the invention of and popularization of basketball, were founded to educate the population in order for individuals to train and become better qualified to fill society’s need for workers.

It is not the responsibility of colleges to turn out polished college basketball players–and in fact they are doing less of this all of the time since the best players frequently enroll for a year or so and then flee to the NBA.

Basketball and football are the primary feeders of American professional leagues, with college basketball being the greatest sham in terms of rosters being riddled with players who have no intention of earning a degree. Even the best football players stay in school three years and the majority of those drafted by the NFL stick around for four years. NBA rules have perverted the college game. It used to be a rarity for a star high school player to skip college and go right to the pros. Then the NBA implemented a minimum age. What this did was leave top high school players in limbo with nowhere to play for a year until their eligibility caught up to their goals. So they decided to hang out at a college for a little while.

This means the best players will disembark in a year anyway, so why should anyone worry about paying them? And if a player stays for four years there is a decent chance he will get an education if he applies himself and that is his reward. Many of the finest universities in the land cost $50,000 a year for four years. That’s a $200,000 value to someone who earns a scholarship. If you don’t think that represents real money, ask a player’s parents when they can instead use the saved cash to pay the mortgage, buy a new car, or send another sibling to school.

The United States is the only country in the world with such a sophisticated athletic system linked to its universities. Athletes of the same age in other countries play sports under the auspices of clubs while their colleges operate in different orbits concentrating on education. American college sports owe their existence to the Greek ideal of a sound mind and a sound body.

Anyone who has competed in sports knows that many worthwhile values are imparted. Playing a sport inspires teamwork, individuals working hard to be the best they can be, is the root of friendships and common goals. There are habits formed and lessons learned that can last a lifetime, just as time spent in the classroom is designed to provide information that can shape a mind for a lifetime.

It is extremely haughty if a university were to value the experience of playing on a basketball team more than playing on a baseball, lacrosse, or soccer team. The lessons available to be absorbed are the same in each sport even if the basketball team gets to spend road trips in fancier hotel rooms and brings in more bucks to the athletic department. Yes, select sports bring in more money, but it is perfectly appropriate for an athletic department, and logical, to spread those spoils around to fund other teams.

Earlier this year new NCAA President Mark Emmert gave a speech at a meeting of sports editors in Indianapolis. He was asked if he foresaw a play-for-pay program instituted any time soon. Emmert said it would never happen on his watch, that it was the wrong way to go. He must stick to that philosophy.

If a player doesn’t want to play for free, then he shouldn’t go to college. If a player is a genuine student he should reap the reward of a college degree that can enrich him for a lifetime.