Student Athlete Compensation
Michael
Pedowitz
In December of 2010, the National Collegiate
Athletic Association (“NCAA”) suspended five football players from the Ohio
State University.[i] The football players were
found to have sold memorabilia to the owner of a tattoo parlor for cash and
discounted tattoos in violation of NCAA rules.[ii]
When asked about selling these items, the players responded that they believed
that “the items were theirs, that they owned them, and they had the right to do
what they wanted to do with them.”[iii] This
situation highlights a significant problem that many college athletes face,
namely the inability to provide for themselves outside the parameters of their
athletic scholarships.[iv]
For years, student athletes have been seeking to be compensated for their play
on the field.[v] With the growth of college
athletics through major television contracts, student athletes have been
looking for their “piece of the pie.”[vi]
Unfortunately, NCAA rules prohibit compensating athletes.[vii]
Proponents of keeping the status quo of college athletics believe that an
athletic scholarship is a direct form of compensation.[viii]
Due to recent events, such as the situation at Ohio State University and prior
lawsuits, the NCAA and university presidents from major athletic conferences[ix] passed a new rule that allows schools to offer
stipends to their players up to the full cost of attending the university.[x] This figure, while miniscule compared to the
amount of money the universities are making, now allows for college athletes to
have money at their disposal for things that are not covered by the athletic
scholarship.[xi] The ability to provide student
athletes with a stipend up to the full cost of attending the university has led
schools to inflate their cost of attendance figure as a way of circumventing
the inability to pay college athletes.[xii]
The NCAA was created to prevent the exploitation of the student athletes.
In doing so, it created one of the most powerful organizations built on the
backs of student athletes who, until recently, did not receive any of the
profits. In an era when everyone is after a slice of the pie, the NCAA
cannot hide behind the notion that student athletes are amateurs as a way of
barring student athletes from being compensated. Through antitrust
lawsuits that chipped away at the NCAA’s armor, changes were instituted to
allow student athletes to receive the full cost of attendance through the award
of an athletic scholarship. Colleges and universities, however, have
taken advantage of this rule and inflated the cost of attendance figure in an
effort to lure recruits and compensate current players. Without addressing
the problem of inflated cost of attendance figures as a way of compensating
student athletes, the concept of “amateurism” will cease to exist.
Steps must be taken to ensure that the figures published by schools are
accurate to safeguard rule violations by those who seek to use it as an
impermissible form of compensation.
[i] Doug
Lesmerises, Terrelle Pryor Among Five Ohio State University Football
Players Suspended for 5 Games in 2011, Cleveland.com (Dec. 23,
2010, 6:45 PM),
http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2010/12/terrelle_pryor_among_five_ohio.html.
[ii] Id.
[iii] Id.
[iv] See Jennifer
Smith, New Cost-of-Attendance Payments to Athletes Not As Large At
Kentucky As Some of Its Competitors, Kentucky.com (Apr. 18, 2015,
4:08 PM),
http://www.kentucky.com/sports/college/kentucky-sports/other-uk-sports/article44594931.html.
[v] See McCormack
v. Nat'l Collegiate Athletic Ass'n, 845 F.2d 1338 (5th Cir. 1988); Jones v.
Nat'l Collegiate Athletic Ass'n, 392 F. Supp. 295 (D. Mass.
1975).
[vi] See Sean
Gregory, It’s Time to Pay College Athletes, Time (Sept.
16, 2013),
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2151167-1,00.html.
[vii] Nat’l
Collegiate Athletic Ass’n, 2015–2016 NCAA Division 1 Manual art. 2 §
2.9 (2016).
[viii] Gregory, supra note
6.
[ix] Steve Berkowitz & Andrew Kreighbaum, College
Athletes Cashing in with Millions in New Benefits, USA
Today (Aug. 19, 2015, 4:05 PM),
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2015/08/18/ncaa-cost--attendance-meals-2015/31904839/.
The major athletic conferences are the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12
Pacific-12, and Southeastern. Id.
[x] Brad
Wolverton, NCAA’s Top Conferences to Allow Additional Aid for Athletes, Chron.
of Higher Educ. (Jan. 14, 2015),
http://chronicle.com/article/NCAA-s-Top-Conferences-to/151299/.
[xi] Jake
New, Colleges Inflate Full Cost of Attendance Numbers, Increasing
Stipends for Athletes, Inside Higher Ed (Aug. 12, 2015, 3:00 AM),
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/08/12/colleges-inflate-full-cost-attendance-numbers-increasing-stipends-athletes.
[xii] Brad
Wolverton & Sandhya Kambhampati, At Least 15 Athletics Programs to
Offer More Than $4,000 in Extra Aid to Athletes, Chron. of Higher
Educ. (Apr. 09, 2015),
http://chronicle.com/article/At-Least-15-Athletics-Programs/229229/#disqus_thread.
