On Aug. 6, 13 UNC-Chapel Hill football players were reportedly suspended for selling team-issued shoes in violation of secondary NCAA rules. Out of the 13, nine players will be suspended for four games, two players will miss two games and two players will miss one game each. According to USA Today, the NCAA agreed to stagger suspensions, due to multiple of the suspended players playing the same position.
Whether or not the punishment given to these players is fair based on the supposed violation of rules, the fact is that this case is just one more to add to the docket of student athletes trying to make money. This, of course, begs the question once again — should student athletes be paid?
UNC-CH is not the only school that has dealt with athletes selling team-issued gear. In fact, NC State’s history with such cases is nowhere near clean itself, as is evidenced by basketball players during the Valvano era who were caught selling game tickets and shoes.
Legendary basketball coach Jim Valvano, who coached the men’s basketball team to an NCAA championship in 1983, was forced to leave his position as head coach following the scandal of players selling gear. According to an article in The News & Observer, the school gave him a ban on postseason participation for the 1989-90 season, and a two-year probation by the NCAA for “…longstanding failure to police the sale of game tickets and athletic shoes by basketball players.”
Clearly, college athletes finding ways to make money off of the massive physical commitment they’ve given their school is no new concept.
It’s no secret that colleges make millions in profits off of sports — particularly off of men’s sports. According to College Factual, NC State makes nearly twice as much money as it spends on men’s sports programs[CB6] . Further, the N&O reports that schools can also make around $4 million in profit from the sale of athletic apparel. Coaches of men’s revenue sports teams, such as football and basketball, make more than $2 million per year in salary and supplements.
Meanwhile, athletes receive meager amounts in financial aid and scholarships, especially when compared to the amount of time and physical effort goes into playing a college sport.
In his autobiography, published in 1991, Valvano addressed the issue by saying, “Every player knows how much money is coming into a university, and how much the coaches are making; it’s not hard to see why some players would resent it.”
Some may argue that receiving free athletic gear and other benefits — such as better dining options and exclusive tutoring — from a school is payment enough. However, when one takes into stock the physical risks an athlete takes, and the amount of work they have to put in leading up to and during their seasons, it seems logical that they should at least receive better scholarships from the school for their commitment.
As coaches earn more and more money, and universities bring in more and more profit from sports and related avenues, it seems that student athletes — without whom there would be no teams or sports to begin with — are more and more forgotten when it comes to adequately compensating them for the physical efforts they put into their schools.
