The Professionalization of College Athletics
In some ways, college sports (primarily basketball and football) have become a minor league system for athletes waiting their turn to make the big time.
This past April, Jahlil Okafor led his Duke basketball team to the NCAA championship. Now, the nineteen-year old is preparing to be a top pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. Okafor is the latest in a slew of 8 consecutive college basketball players who played one year in college and were (or will be) top 5 draft picks. Players like Okafor apply to the “one-and-done” rule, which was enacted in 2005 to prevent high school basketball stars from jumping straight into the NBA. This requires young stars to play a year at college, but what benefit are they getting by spending a year in a place meant for academic enrichment?
Those who play college sports are referred to as “student-athletes”, but some of these players are not interested in a degree. Okafor and his counterparts go to college merely to meet the eligibility requirements of their respective professional league. In some ways, college sports (primarily basketball and football) have become a minor league system for athletes waiting their turn to make the big time. These athletes go to college to play sports for high-profile programs in preparation for the major leagues. The NCAA remains consistent with their vision that college sports are a supplement for coursework. Yet there is disconnect between the NCAA’s vision of college athletics and the reality of college athletics.
College sports thirty years ago and college sports now are dramatically different. With increased media coverage and better training facilities, many college teams have started to mimic professional sports teams. This year, there was talk that a college basketball team, the Kentucky Wildcats, could beat an NBA team, the Philadelphia 76ers. As college sports are becoming more professionalized, the NCAA is nearing the inevitability of having to redesign its definition of what “student-athletes” are. If it doesn’t, college sports and professional sports will continue to move closer to each other until the sole difference rests in the ages of the players.
What many people do not know though, is that the term was created as part of the NCAA defending itself against a legal battle over workman’s compensation benefits.
The NCAA has developed an objective of providing athletes the best possible environment to succeed academically and athletically. Their Mission Statement is as follows: “Our purpose is to govern competition in a fair, safe, equitable and sportsmanlike manner, and to integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education so that the educational experience of the student-athlete is paramount”. The statement clearly articulates the NCAA’s commitment to blending athletics and academics. After all, that is what former US President and pioneer Teddy Roosevelt strove for when he pushed to reform the rules and regulations of college athletics.
The NCAA was created in 1906 “to protect young people from the dangerous and exploitive athletics practices of the time”. These practices included inadequate medical care and resources for athletes. The goal of the NCAA since it’s inception has been to give student-athletes a better arena to succeed on the field and in the classroom.
It wasn’t until the 1950s, however, that the NCAA crafted the term “student-athlete”. When general sports followers hear the term, they think about the combined nature of academics and athletics. What many people do not know though, is that the term was created as part of the NCAA defending itself against a legal battle over workman’s compensation benefits. The widow of former college football player Ray Dennison filed for workmen’s compensation benefits after Dennison died from a head injury while playing football for the Fort Lewis A&M Aggies. By referring to Dennison and others as “student-athletes”, the NCAA knew that it would be very difficult for people to prove they were employees of the University. The term “student-athlete” appears everywhere in the mission statement and core values of the NCAA and it has become a regular topic of conversation in the public’s daily jargon.
This popular conception of “student-athletes” dominates everyone’s minds today, but is the term an accurate description of college athletes?
The number of college athletes leaving school early has greatly increased over the last few decades. For players like Jahlil Okafor, college is simply a necessity in order to enter the NBA Draft. The NBA requires players wait at least one year after high school before entering the draft. Going to college is just a stepping-stone for high school stars to meet the eligibility requirements for the NBA draft. Rather than spending a year idle, top players go to college to better their skills with state-of-the-art facilities and hall of fame coaches. Despite the quality of Duke’s academic programs, Okafor did not choose to go to Duke because of them. He joined the Blue Devils to play for Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski.
There’s a reason why Duke and the University of Kentucky continue to have “one-and-done” players. Krzyzewski and John Calipari are two of the premier head coaches in college basketball. Duke has had a player drafted in the first round of the NBA Draft in five of the past six years, including number one overall pick Kyrie Irving and number two overall pick Jabari Parker. Since 2010, the University of Kentucky has seen an incredible fifteen players selected in the first round of the NBA Draft. This pattern reinforces that these players are not going to college for academics. They are playing for coaches with tremendous career records to better their chances of being a top draft pick. How can Kentucky alumni and current NBA superstars John Wall and Anthony Davis say they were “student-athletes” in college when they took one year of classes?
This is not to say that “one-and-done” players don’t put any effort into their academics. Let’s all congratulate John Wall for posting a 3.5 GPA in the Spring of his freshmen year. It’s quite an accomplishment that should not be dismissed, but how much of that 3.5 GPA helped Wall earn his first start in an NBA all-star game? Wall didn’t earn a college degree, but he didn’t need to. He is a world-class athlete who will make millions of dollars throughout his career. He actually would have gone straight into the NBA draft out of high school and been a top pick if it wasn’t for the “one-and-done” rule.
Going to college is just a stepping-stone for high school stars to meet the eligibility requirements for the NBA draft.
Wall is the perfect example of why the term “student-athlete” is no longer suitable for the current arena of college sports. The NBA makes players wait a year after high school before entering the draft. College basketball is the best place for star players to work on their game and academics are just something that comes along with it.
The term “student-athlete” implies that a student participates in an extra-curricular activity in addition to their coursework. The NCAA refers to “student-athletes” as students first, then athletes. In Division One athletics, the NCAA mandates that student-athletes earn at least six credit hours a semester, which typically amounts to 2 classes. Often, these two classes are two of the easiest University classes. Current NBA players Jimmer Fredette and Kyle Singler played all four years in college, yet their college majors are American Studies and Visual Arts, respectively. Jahlil Okfafor took a college class called “Decoding Disney” which “explores the values, messages and ideology” is some of Disney’s early films. Sounds fun, right?
The pattern of easy college classes also extends into easy college majors. Anthony Davis, drafted first overall in the 2012 NBA Draft, was majoring in University Studies and Andrew Wiggins, drafted first overall in the 2014 NBA Draft, was undeclared. Davis and Wiggins are basketball superstars and they know that they want to be professional players. The major they choose doesn’t matter one bit. There are pre-law students and pre-med students, so why can’t there be pre-sports students? These players are students by default of playing college sports. They are not “student-athletes” so it’s time to stop calling them that. They take classes so they remain eligible to keep playing college basketball. They play college basketball because the NBA makes them wait a year out of high school before entering the draft. The NBA’s eligibility requirements indirectly place them under the label of a “student-athlete”.
Many people who argue that these players are not “student-athletes” view them solely as athletes. This often leads to another topic of discussion in which many say that these athletes deserve to be paid a salary as employees of their University. When top college basketball and football players at high-profile schools lead their teams to championships, university revenue increases. This subsequently leads to larger television contracts, merchandise sales, and facility upgrades. Supporters of giving college athletes a salary say that the athletes deserve some portion of their schools’ incoming revenue. Opponents argue that paying college athletes will lead to college sports mimicking the business-like atmosphere of professional sports.
The issue with that thinking is that college basketball and college football are already being professionalized. The term “student-athlete” has no place because the sole goal for these top athletes is to make it the pros. All the top football players recently drafted- from Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota to Amari Cooper and Leonard Williams- have their names on jerseys. Also, they all are able to sell their own merchandise to make money. These are both characteristics of the NFL. The only big difference between college football and the NFL in today’s day and age is that college players aren’t getting paid. But this could change soon.
Northwestern’s football team has officially unionized so they now can be referred to as employees of the University. The players want to be paid as employees of the University and this could very well happen in the near future. At that point, football at Northwestern would be completely professionalized.
All the talk about college basketball and football does ignore the rest of college sports. Of course there are baseball, soccer, lacrosse, tennis, ice hockey, field hockey, track and field, cross country, swimming and diving, golf, volleyball, rowing, wresting, and gymnastics teams in addition to basketball and football. Many argue that the “student-athlete” label is appropriate because the majority of students who play college sports will not turn pro. When do you hear about a superstar college golfer playing one year in college and then playing alongside Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods in the PGA Tour? While the nature of college basketball and football is currently far different from that of the other sports, there is no guarantee that these other sports won’t gradually enter a process of professionalization.
If Northwestern’s unionization eventually leads to their players getting paid, this could lead to a large demand from other college football players to be paid. Once college football players are paid, it would not be long before college basketball players are paid as well. The ripple effect could continue, with other Division One players asking why they aren’t getting paid. Before we know it, many other sports could see their players earning a salary. The professionalization of college sports could be complete across the board.
but it’s clear that college athletics today do not match with the NCAA’s definition of college athletics.
It’s too early to tell whether this happens or not, but the trajectory of college athletics is leading us in this general direction. Our current definition of college sports is changing. The once useful and meaningful definition of a “student-athlete” is no longer applicable to today’s college athletes. As the number of people worldwide watching college sports grows each year, college athletics are becoming more and more about money. This doesn’t mean that the key traits of college sports-integrity, fairness, and sportsmanship-need to be ignored, but it’s clear that college athletics today do not match with the NCAA’s definition of college athletics.
We can debate all day about how to address this change in definition, whether it is paying college athletes, changing professional sport eligibility rules, or something else. At the same time, though, the fact that college sports are drawing the largest audience they’ve ever had needs to be celebrated. There’s a reason the March Madness tournament is called the best time of the year by many sports fans. There’s something special about college football that cannot be explained. Let’s not change that.
