Unionizing College Sports: Pro or Con

[JFK_USA]

The one factor that few people consider is that if you want to play professional basketball or football, you are virtually required to get your "minor league" experience playing college football.



If a young high school athlete wanted to be honest and say, "I have no interest in school, I just want to prepare myself to tbe a professional basketball or football player," he would not be able to do it, no matter how hard he tried.



So in essence, the colleges have monopoly power on these young athletes. It is their way or nothing at all.



As I have written here previously, the bad guys here are the NFL and NBA owners, who exploit the NCAA to provide a free minor league system for them. If they had any integrity they would do what MLB does and sponsor a number of minor league programs so that the schools do hot have to be compromised with non-student athletes, and so that young athletes could be PAID for their efforts.

The NCAA is just as guilty since they take money from these professional organization to keep these "student athletes" unpaid.

It's been commonplace since the 1980s to move towards a cartel system when it comes to labor costs keeping employee wages down while employee productive is at an all time high. They don't like unions because they fight for higher wages for their increased productivity. When it's an individual employee asks for a raise, it's easier to tell them no or let them go for even asking. Now we have algorithms in job applications that kick applications out of the system if they put in a wage that the business feels is too high even if the wage is a fair market rate. So we have a limbo effect on wages like "how low can you go."

This NCAA unionizing situation is the same thing. The rich aristocrats are trying to keep players doing more and more work yet their compensation (ie. scholarship) and other benefits stay the same or decrease. That's not the way it's suppose to work.

The ideal of America is that if you work hard, you get rewarded. American worker productivity is at an all time high yet wages have been stagnant for over 30 years. Company profits are at an all time high yet workers get the crumbs. It's not sustainable.

 

[DGS49]

When you accept a college scholarship today, you are entering into a contractual relationship. The essence of any contract is the exchange of one valuable thing for another valuable thing, quid pro quo.

In the case of an athletic scholarship, the student agrees to (a) be a student in good standing for four years of eligibility, and (b) play diligently for the - say - football team. In exchange for that commitment, the college agrees to let the student come to school for free - something worth perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars over the period of eligibility. Also, there are a lot of tangible and intangible benefits to being a varsity, scholarship athlete. You get academic assistance for free, social opportunities, use of training and exercise facilities, the benefits of professional coaching (in the unlikely event you continue at your sport after your eligibility is exhausted), travel and other experiences that you wouldn't get otherwise. I'm sure the list could be quite long, but I have no personal experience with it.

The student could have chosen to go to another school, go without a scholarship, or pursue a career as a professional athlete in some other way. The school didn't have to offer the scholarship. The contract was freely entered into, on both sides, and although the college has a more sophisiticated knowledge of some things, the student usually has parents, coaches, and other advisors, as well as knowing his own personal situation better than anyone else.

In offering the scholarship, the college might take into consideration the POSSIBILITY that this student might be a valuable addition to its sports program, and help to bring revenue to the college. The student might also be a total flop; some high school stars turn out to be duds in college, and the college would still be required to honor the scholarship (absent some dirty dealing). Furthermore, if a scholarship athlete doesn't complete his degree within the eligibility period, most colleges will continue giving him free tuition until he graduates.

Bottom line: Even if it is not a formal, written contract, it is a contract (an exchange of promises), and a fair one on the day it is "signed."

So where does a student get off coming back to the college a couple years later and saying he doesn't like it? He wants to be paid. He wants to limit his practice hours. Whatever.

Leave. And don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. There are plenty more where you came from.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Ohio legislature is trying to make it illegal for students organize.

What the lege is doing is illegal, and the court will tell it so.

 

[PredFan]

100% against. If they unionize, I'll never watch college sports again.

 

[Unkotare]

Leave. And don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. There are plenty more where you came from.

Of course in the case of the very top D1 athletes, there are NOT plenty more where they came from. That's why they are recruited by top schools.

 

[initforme]

"The cat is out of the bag either on purpose or inadvertently. College football stars are only classified as students to make it legal for them to play football. The college degree they end up with ain't worth the paper it's printed on."

That is not true. No college degree means you work for someone else for lower wages. Both are travesties. One's only way to a better life is that college degree. As far as unionizing, let em unionize. Won't hurt anything. A group of athletes wanting better. Only makes sense in every aspect.

 

[Unkotare]

One's only way to a better life is that college degree.

That is patently absurd.

 

[Unkotare]

If a young high school athlete wanted to be honest and say, "I have no interest in school, I just want to prepare myself to tbe a professional basketball or football player," he would not be able to do it, no matter how hard he tried.

Really? Ever heard of a fella named LeBron James?

 

[initforme]

This is capitalism and the free markets. If the college gets one red cent of income from their sports then the athletes bringing in that one red cent should receive a share. Sit down and bargain it out. If you have a certain skill that a college wants, then you use it for your own gain, not to help the college. Kinda like being in the work force.

 

[initforme]

There are millions of American workers who would be earning a whole lot less without their college degree. There are a few who have done it without but I surely would never ever advise it. If they bargain their tuition plus all medical expenses then so be it that's fine but sit down and work with each other, the way it should be.

 

[Smilebong]

I couuld care less about the unions. I say pay them. I have known many scholarchipped athletes. They make millions for the school and they get a $80,000 education. At least some sports do.

I say pay them according to receipts at games and broadcast revenues.

 

[Smilebong]

If a young high school athlete wanted to be honest and say, "I have no interest in school, I just want to prepare myself to tbe a professional basketball or football player," he would not be able to do it, no matter how hard he tried.

Really? Ever heard of a fella named LeBron James?

Kobe Bryant.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Personally I don't care since I do not watch any sports. However I have heard enough about how college athletes are being taken advantage of economically to the benefit of the schools.

So unionization would seem to be the only solution though it would have no effect on my apathy about the sports.

psik