College Athletes Are Being Cheated Out of Billions

Mr. Mark Emmert

NCAA Headquarters
750 W Washington St 
Indianapolis, IN  46204

Dear Mr Emmert,

I am writing to you today to add my perspective to the mountain of growing support for college athletes to be compensated more appropriately based on the monies being garnered by the NCAA.  It is the responsibility of the NCAA to investigate an appropriate solution to this ongoing and justified debate before it becomes untenable and impacts the quality and sanctity of the players and the game. If the NCAA fail to do their moral and ethical duty fairly to the student athletes, the franchise organizations and the fans, it is likely that a volcano will erupt leaving a catastrophe for everybody in its path, including the NCAA.

I am not suggesting a college athlete should  be given a salary or that any compensation follows the business model of the professional athletes, however, I do believe that a 2 billion dollar industry can do a lot more to manage this precarious and disenchanted situation.   

Individual approaches such as a small royalty if the NCAA makes direct monies off an individual from advertising, (for example Tim Tebow), would go a long way in sharing the lucrative advertising revenue gained solely from individual student athletes.

Alternatively, a national foundation that is funded by the NCAA donating a percentage of the profits could be instituted, such that funds are made available to those in need,  and individuals can apply for financial aid during their athletic college career.

Even escrow funding to provide emergency services, injury compensation, legal services, is an easy objective approach with no college student athlete having any individual personal gain or perception of any individual gain.

According to the NCAA’s Division I Manual, the “Principle of Amateurism” is the participation of student-athletes as an avocation, and that the student-athletes should be protected from exploitation by professional and commercial enterprises. It would seem, however, that the “protected student athletes” are truly only being exploited by the profession sworn to protect them.  

A prime example is Andrew Oliver (pitcher) who was successful in his legal victory against the NCAA but ended up having to settle out of court due to the NCAA spending a fortune tying him up in ongoing legal battles with their lawyers - to the point he could no longer afford to keep going. And the source of the legal battle the NCAA fought so hard to defend - the NCAA’s principle that letting lawyers negotiate for players would ruin student-athletes’ innocence. The irony that this situation  presents will go down in history books, with the NCAA looking like spoiled arrogant fools.

The National College Players Association (NCPA) is gaining in popularity and the fear invoked by the NCAA,   for players to not join the union or legalize it by state, will soon reach a point that it will no longer be tolerated and events similar to the civil revolts most recently seen in the Middle East will likely result.

Since the debacle where NCAA rules barred the presence of medical staff for emergencies during workouts and two players died (2001), the United Steel Workers (USW) union has been providing advice, legal assistance and fundraising including support from numerous professional players. The fact that it took two deaths to pressure the NCAA to end the prohibition on emergency medical staff is shameful.

In this last year, hundreds of Division I college athletes at five schools ( including UCLA’s basketball team and football team) signed an NCPA petition to the NCAA calling for a set of reforms. The NCAA has the opportunity to lead the reform in a controlled manner but to date it has buried its head in the sand whilst the turmoil swirls around. At some point the NCAA must take notice that this issue is not going away.

So again I reiterate my desire to see the NCAA initiate controlled reform of this antiquated rule and begin a joint process to investigate options and solutions that meet the needs of all the parties involved. This will involve huge compromises but that’s what will go down in history as a successful reform.

The petition attached provides evidence that this is not a single voice but a chorus of demands that the NCAA step up and take responsibility to lead this reform.

Thank you for your attention to this issue and I look forward to hearing your response.

Sincerely,

Sebastien James Rhodes