Petition to Allow Collegiate Players to Receive Compensation

By Kevin L Davis (@EsquireSports)

For those that don’t know, the NCAA has rules which require players to be amateurs to play for their universities. Because of this players lose their eligibility if they are paid in anyway for playing, including profiting off their likeness.  Yes they do get their scholarship and certain other academic benefits, but that’s it.

What this means is these players are also not allowed to receive payment from schools, AAU coaches and agents; they also can't get paid for commercials, shoe deals, aren't entitled to a share of their jersey sales, don't get paid for inclusion in video games, etc. 

To me this system is blatantly unfair.  While I don’t think the school’s themselves or the States, the funding source of public universities, should pay athletes (could you imagine supporting a tax-hike to support paying players when schools are being closed?) I think any of us who attended college for years on end would agree that the living expenses amassed during your stay there are enormous.

These costs and the restriction from making any income off a player’s celebrity status, causes the enticement of accepting illegal benefits from unsavory characters that much harder to resist.  The result of that temptation has brought proud programs like USC and Ohio State to their knees as indiscretions of players and coaches come to light.

As much as the NCAA’s leadership may disagree, I say the only proper reaction to the slew of indiscretions is to abandon their rules on amateurism.  Instead they should adopt rules similar to those proposed by Jay Bilas.  In this article >>> http://www.courtcred.com/college/item/615-jay-bilas-thinks-collegiate-players-should-get-paid.html; Bilas states his belief that the concept of amateurism is morally wrong and a product of past times that is no longer needed.

Bilas went on to say “I don't think that college athletes need to be paid by the universities but they shouldn't be restricted from realizing monetary gains from outside the universities.”  For those that don’t know as well as being an ESPN personality, Bilas is a practicing attorney who went to law school at Duke while also working there as an assistant coach.  During his 3 years coaching the Blue Devils made it to the Final Four all 3 years and won 2 national championships.

In my opinion, Bilas could not be more right.  Changing the rules as he suggested could go a long way in prevent future fiasco’s such USC or Ohio State from occurring.  Players would be able to get paid for commercials, sign shoe deals, etc. and universities would not have to worry about being shamed because of their athletic program or be forced to spend so many of their resources on ensuring that their players aren’t receiving benefits, because a compensation system would be allowed. 

In the words of President Barrack Obama, "it's time for a change."  The reason given to support keeping the requirement that a player must have amateur status to maintain eligibility in the NCAA is normally “that's the way its always been.”  Frankly this is not good enough.  When it is clearly evident that current system is broken, there is absolutely no reason why the status quo should be maintained just in the name of tradition.