Should NCAA Athletes Get Paid?

By Shiven Sharma
Shiven Sharma is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania studying Biology with a minor in French Studies.

​The National Collegiate Athletic Association is an organization founded during two White House conferences in the early 20th century in response to repeated football injuries and deaths. Now, it oversees intercollegiate competition for 24 different sports, most notably including basketball and track. With an enormous viewership for its popular sports, the NCAA has generated a great deal of revenue. For instance, the popular NCAA Basketball March Madness tournament generated upwards of $1 billion last year and the championship game itself raked in $114 million in ad revenue alone [1]. However, despite the lucrative nature of college sports in the U.S., college athletes, up until now, have not received a single penny of compensation for their efforts. For instance, due to former Division I Basketball phenom Zion Williamson’s stint as a Duke Blue Devil, jersey sales more than doubled, yet Williamson did not profit from his name [2].

Fortunately for future NCAA athletes in California, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill (i.e. SB206) enabling these athletes to hire agents and thus profit from endorsements. This bill will take effect in 2023, approximately three years from now, which for some is quite a wait. Nonetheless, this law is considered an important stepping stone in a large-scale combat against a long-standing NCAA ideology that athletes deserve at most free tuition, as opposed to steady income, for playing sports. For Newsom, this law is considered, “...a big move to expose the farce and to challenge a system that is outsized in its capacity to push back” [3]. Some states, like Florida and Illinois, have taken notice and are planning a similar legal strategy to allow athletes to monetize their likeness.

Given the recent uproar, the NCAA has taken an opposing stance. At first, the NCAA released a statement deeming the recent California bill-passing as “unconstitutional” as students should not be treated like coworkers, but later gave hints to acquiescing to the ordeal, on their terms of course [4]. In the eyes of Len Simons, a lawyer and a law professor at the University of San Diego, the calm aura may not last, as he said that he thought a lawsuit over the California law should be prepared [5]. It is quite possible that the NCAA would sue over the Californian or any future law that other states could very well pass. Despite this, in the interim, any wrongful suspension of an NCAA player for accepting monetary compensation would not be allowed.

In the meantime, as for the federal government, U.S. Representative Mark Walker has introduced federal legislation titled “The Student-Athlete Equity Act” to end NCAA restrictions on player’s publicity rights [6]. This would enable third-party organizations to cut deals with top-notch college athletes for compensation. The NCAA’s position on this concept is that athletes should not be allowed such a privilege since they are already provided free high-quality education. Currently, U.S. appellate courts have agreed, but given the possible effectiveness if this act were to be passed federally, the NCAA would have a difficult time gathering evidence to prove their case in a trial setting. Currently, former Villanova University football player, Ralph Johnson, and his attorneys are lobbying for guaranteed hourly wage for student-athletes through a class-action lawsuit [7]. They are arguing that student-athletes should be viewed as work-study students and therefore be paid similarly. This seems promising, except many would argue that student-athletes are more akin to students participating in school clubs or organizations, who do not get paid whatsoever.

Globally, this is a movement in the right direction; college athletes endure much hardship since they are expected to keep up with rigorous training schedules, maintain a social life, receive adequate amounts of sleep, and keep up their grades. If there was a financial incentive to perform such strenuous tasks, it would make the experience a little more gratifying. Especially now that there are ways to qualify for professional sports leagues (i.e. NBA, MLSE, etc.) without actually having to attend college, the onus is on the NCAA to make the situation right, or else it will only hurt them in the long run. To qualify for the NBA draft, for example, players can enter into the NBA G-League for a year or go overseas to play professional basketball (i.e. Euro-League, Chinese Basketball Association, Australian National Basketball League, etc.). Prospective players will not have to worry about risking their professional careers in college through injuries while in prime bodily conditions. This financial incentive can decrease the number of "box-office" players in NCAA sports, resulting in a major loss in revenue for the NCAA. Thus, the NCAA should accept the future legal changes started by Californian development and pay up; after all, the NCAA executives are the ones who are primarily benefiting from college sports in general.

​​​​The opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions of the designated authors and do not reflect the opinions or views of the Penn Undergraduate Law Journal, our staff, or our clients.

References
[1] Jerde, Sara. “NCAA Championship Game Averages 19.6 Million Viewers; Tournament Tops $933 Million in Ad Revenue.” Adweek, 9 Apr. 2019, https://www.adweek.com/tv-video/ncaa-championship-game-averages-19-6-million-viewers-tournament-tops-933-million-in-ad-revenue/.
[2] Dodson, Christopher. “Everyone But Zion Williamson Is Cashing In On The Zion Williamson Economy.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 12 July 2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherdodson/2019/07/12/everyone-but-zion-williamson-cashing-in-the-zion-williamson-economy/#1e1211779b9f.
[3] Blinder, Alan. “N.C.A.A. Athletes Could Be Paid Under New California Law.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 Sept. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/30/sports/college-athletes-paid-california.html.
[4] Brown, Matt. “What the NCAA Just Said - and Didn't Say - about Players Getting Paid.” SBNation.com, SBNation.com, 30 Oct. 2019, https://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2019/10/30/20938975/ncaa-players-likeness-payment-rights-announcement.
[5] Brown, Matt. “What the NCAA Just Said - and Didn't Say - about Players Getting Paid.” SBNation.com, SBNation.com, 30 Oct. 2019, https://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2019/10/30/20938975/ncaa-players-likeness-payment-rights-announcement. 
[6] “Walker Introduces Student-Athlete Equity Act to End NCAA Restrictions on Player's Publicity Rights.” Congressman Mark Walker, 22 July 2019, https://walker.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/walker-introduces-student-athlete-equity-act-end-ncaa-restrictions.
[7] Blasi, Weston. “Former College Football Player Sues NCAA, Says Student Athletes Should Be Paid Minimum Wage.” MarketWatch, 9 Nov. 2019, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/former-college-football-player-sues-ncaa-says-student-athletes-should-be-paid-minimum-wage-2019-11-08.

Photo taken from Flickr: ​https://flic.kr/p/7cQAne