Paying student-athletes

Amateurism in college sports has always been akin to puritanism in escort services. But on Thursday, college sports finally gave up the charade. The NCAA and the Power Five athletic conferences agreed to pay student-athletes. And the legal right student-athletes won recently to profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL) will be the cherry on top.

But no, they didn’t find religion. A pending class-action lawsuit, House v. NCAA, forced them to do the right thing. Their settlement could take months to finalize. But its implications are already clear: the days of colleges exploiting student-athletes are over!

The settlement has two key components. First, it will distribute $2.75 billion to athletes who competed before July 2021, the date when the NCAA first allowed athletes to earn NIL income. Second, it will establish a future revenue-sharing model. Schools could distribute around $20 million per year directly to athletes.

Still, it raises numerous questions: Which athletes will be compensated? How much will they make? It hardly seems fair that relatively unpopular lacrosse players should earn the same as popular basketball or football players. Will women get equal pay? And, thanks to the Caitlin-Clark effect, that’s a very relevant question. Can smaller schools keep up with their wealthier counterparts?

The injustice of indentured servitude

For far too long, the NCAA profited from the labor of student-athletes without compensating them fairly. College football, in particular, has always been big business. Presidents, coaches, athletic directors, and others have profited handsomely.

I linked to a previous commentary in my opening paragraph. That commentary will attest that I’ve been in the vanguard of those decrying this modern-day form of indentured servitude. I’ve argued for years that paying student-athletes is a moral imperative.

I cannot overstate the fact that athletes fuel the billion-dollar industry of college sports. Yet, far from paying them for their labor, colleges often penalize them for taking mere pittances under the table.

These young men and women dedicate their time, energy, and health to their sports. In return, they receive scholarships that invariably do not cover incidental expenses. Not to mention that most athletes end up with degrees not worth the paper they’re written on.

The road ahead

The NCAA’s decision to pay athletes is a long-overdue acknowledgment of their indispensable role in the multi-billion dollar industry of college sports. But this is no occasion for waving pom poms.

After all, the devil is in the details. And ensuring fair and equitable compensation for all athletes will be a complex task.

The disparity between different sports, genders, and schools will need careful consideration. I don’t envy anyone having to make these Solomonic decisions.

Moreover, like reparations for slavery itself, I don’t see how colleges can put a dollar amount on the lost wages and opportunity costs. After all, student-athletes had to wear the albatross of amateurism for over 100 years.

Even so, there’s no denying the victory this settlement represents. As Matt Mitten, a professor of sports law at Marquette University, aptly put it,