USC QB Caleb Williams was one of the highest earning NIL Athletes of 2023. He appeared in a nationwide Wendy's commercial campaign. Meg Oliphant//Getty Images
Post by: Andrew McClure
1/16/2024 8:45 PM
Conference realignment has shook the very core values that the NCAA has stood upon so strongly since its inception. The idea of “Student Athlete” was invented by the NCAA to encourage amateurism and value their education over monetary payments for their efforts. Realignment has only further enshrined what we have all known for years, the NCAA, and their universities, are hypocrites.
Stoking the fire on realignment leaves no doubt where these decision makers stand - money over everything. While Stanford and Cal travel to Florida twice a year, and up and down the Atlantic coast, the decision makers boast of TV deals and money flowing into the university.
When are these athletes supposed to go to class? When is a UCLA softball player supposed to take a test when they have a road trip to Rutgers? If the NCAA truly values the student athlete, they would put student success over monetary values.
Think of this again, what percentage of student athletes across the country will make a living off of their individual sport? I’d guess it’s pretty low. After working in college football for 6 ½ years, I learned a lot of things. One thing that always stood out to me was the certainty a large majority of the roster thought they would make the NFL. With this, these students often struggled in the classroom. They had it all figured out. “3 years and to the league,” they would say. Well, how did that work out?
Pushing the NCAA away from amateurism is a slippery slope, it limits college athletes to supreme focus of what money they can make, and completely discards the value of a free education. While the athletes are traveling all over the country to make money for their universities, what are they losing? Mental Health is already a national emergency, and athletes struggle with it more than the average college student. Why push that further? Reliance on the sport will create a massive cliff for these students to fall off once their careers are done.
To clarify, I do not think that NIL is necessarily a bad thing. I truly believe athletes should be compensated for their work, they are not provided the ability to make their own money, as their busy schedules do not allow for that. Furthermore, the money these athletes bring into the universities should somewhat end up in their pockets, they deserve it. There must be a plan built into NIL to further educate student athletes on income and business development.
NIL also further promotes the disparities between sports at the Division One Level. The top football athletes are earning millions dollars a year, featuring in national commercial campaigns. What does the volleyball player earn? I understand why the starting QB at Oklahoma gets paid more than the Long Snapper, but what is stopping Oklahoma from paying everyone to transfer to their team? Not everyone can play. Where does the education of current value vs. future value come into the equation for our student athletes? Where is that being built into the NCAA bylaws? A support system around our students is imperative to the success of these athletes, and if the school does not provide one, we are doing a disservice to these students across the country.
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