Paying College Athletes: A Movement Grows
By Paul Doyle, The Hartford Courant | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Sack, a
That year, the four-year scholarship was replaced by one-year renewable scholarships. The way Sack sees it, that's when college athletes became glorified employees of their schools.
"That decision was critical," Sack said last week. "The
So when Sack is asked if college athletes are employees who should be paid, his answer is always the same:
"They are employees. The genie has been out of the bottle."
There are, of course, varying views on this and what to do about it.
While
"Some people might also say, 'Why don't these athletes get a job,'" Allen said. "Well, for those who don't know, playing a Division I sport is a full-time job. All in a day's work we can have study hall, three classes, lift, and practice. The time we get to relax is usually spent doing homework or simply resting for the next day. ... Everybody is making money in college athletics today except the ones who put their bodies, mind, and life on the line for the love of their school."
The
As the issues reached a boiling point this year, Sack has been happy to see change finally coming in college sports. While he supports players unionizing as means of earning a larger voice, he offers what he considers a better solution: revert back to the pre-1973 scholarship procedure. Besides giving college athletes a guaranteed four-year scholarship -- provided they are students in good standing -- Sack suggests offering insurance coverage.
That's part of the College Athlete Protection Act, proposed legislation being pushed by Sack and the
Sack said the money for increased insurance coverage for athletes at all levels can be derived from a Division I-A college football national championship, shifting revenue away from the BCS model.
"So there would be remedial education for the athletes, an academic trust fund for the athletes," Sack said. "If you don't graduate and want to come back and get a degree, an academic trust fund that would help the athletes who really do so much for the universities, in terms of entertaining the public and all the other things. ... They would be able to come back and get a graduate degree.
"We're hoping for compensation for the athletes, but an educational and medical compensation. Not negotiated contracts that would be about the financial benefits and so forth."
The timing is right for such a proposal. The issue of amateurism and compensating college athletes has been in the spotlight, with
The
When
"It's funny when the hungry thing came out, people only heard the ending of it," Napier said. "The question I was asked was should student-athletes be paid? I don't think student-athletes should be getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. I don't think they should feel they are better than the regular students. At the same time, the
"People took the whole hungry thing out of context. We get three meals a day definitely. There's food available after practice, but it replenishes two to three hours of basketball. You're studying from 8 to 10 and now it's late and you're hungry. That's all I was saying. I'm not saying it's so tough. I just wanted the
Coincidently, the
"Athletes come from many different home environments," said
"I know universities make a lot of money off athletes, but I would also admit that I've made a lot of money in life because I played basketball for
"I never saw myself as an employee of the
Like Manuel, Sack played football at a big-time program. He was linebacker on
But he fondly recalls the offer
"I did not end up winning the Heisman Trophy," Sack said jokingly.
The message, though, was clear.
"That I was being valued by that school as a student and not as a commodity that could be fired or traded around or chewed up like a professional athlete," Sack said. "That means a lot."
The way Sack sees it, that approach changed when scholarships became renewable in 1973. And when the
The
"We need them to be students, first," Sack said. "The changes are coming."
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