The NCAA: 21st Century Slavery

Now i know the title seems outrageous, but please, listen to my arguments.  The NCAA is undergoing a major face lift that Joan Rivers would be proud of.  Teams are abandoning conference affiliations and rivalries that have been a part of college football and college basketball for decades. The problem is the college presidents have taken over college athletics, and lets be fair, most college presidents are old white males.  I am not big on stereotypes, but this one i think fits.  So if we end up with 4 or 5 big "super conferences" what does that mean for the NCAA?  Well for starters it will mean a boatload of money for the schools.  The TV contracts and the ticket sales and everything that goes with it will give the schools millions of dollars.  So that means lower tuition? right?  Doubt it.  It mans better programs at the schools and a better chance to earn a top flight education? Doubt it.  These guys are going to pocket this money.

OK, so maybe it will be a benefit to the "Student Athlete", an oxymoron if there ever was one. Not only do I doubt it, we all know it will never happen. These super conferences will lock out the smaller schools meaning less chance for kids, and yes college coaches are recruiting 13 and 14 year olds.  They will probably create a playoff for division I football (or whatever they call it these days) which is a good thing, but probably only half the current division I schools will be involved.  A bigger piece of the pie for Oklahoma's and USC's of the world and the Boise States will have to play in a 2nd tier "league".  

Lets get to the heart of the problem the slaves, student athletes.  They gain nothing out of this, yet they are the ones performing the reason we watch the March madness and bowl season.  But wait they get an education!  Well yes they are offered a chance at an education, but honestly some of these kids are not college students, which is not to be insulting, not every kid is college material.  So yes they are given a chance they might not have if they couldn't run fast or jump high.  But to a lot of these kids offering an education as payment for their athletic talents would be like offering gummy bears to employees at a factory.  What are you going to do with gummy bears? What are some of these kids going to with a chance at an education if they can't excel in school?  These schools are making so much money.   If the University of Texas paid their players using the NFL formula for revenue, every player on the Longhorn football team would make $200,000 and the school would still bring in millions.  Their likeness are being used on video games, they don't get a dime.  A music student on scholarship can make a jazz record and bring in money, but Terrell Pryor can't sell his autograph to get a stinking tattoo! Really?  I was considered middle class growing up.  My father paid for my tuition, but i didn't have a lot of money.  I had to work 2 jobs while going to school full time  to get books, spending money. These kids can't work.  And now you add more travel time with schools like Nebraska having to travel to the west coast for PAC 12 games, when do the student athletes get a chance to enjoy college? To go to class? for that matter.  We all remember Len Bias took Basket weaving in college.  In my opinion it is slavery to be making millions for your institution and you are offering the players a scholarship that half of them won't use.  Then if the coach leaves, the players are stuck, they have to sit out a year to transfer? What else would you call it.  These college presidents should be leaders in education, but they have sold out to greed, just like corporations our government, and everything else.  it is the almighty dollar that anyone cares about anymore, and we act surprised when a teen kills another teen over an ipod?

My final point to the people who still believe the student athletes are getting an education, which is more than a lot of kids are offered, is this.  2010 69% of  division I football programs students graduated.  61% of African Americans graduate. Oklahoma and Arizona graduated less then half. Not everyone makes it to the NFL or NBA, so what happens to these kids? Do we really want to know or care?  maybe they will expand the NCAA Tournament to 96 teams so its even more money for the College Presidents, but Nada for the student athletes.