Stipends for College Athletes
It’s about time: Stipends for College Athletes
Imagine being a college football star and finding out that a jersey representing your school with your name and number on the back is not only selling for $110 in stores nationally, but it is profiting higher than some professional sports jerseys. Now, imagine that you as that student-athlete will not be making a single penny off your institution using your name for monetary profit. Why you ask? Because according to the governing body of collegiate sports, the National Collegiate Athletic Association or NCAA, this would be considered an act that would bring an athlete out of his amateur status. Yet, it is okay to exploit that athlete’s talents as if he or she were a professional athlete and not compensate him or her. The NCAA started off as a small organization whose first objective was to solve an injury crisis in college football. However, with a growing governing power came more change. In 1852, Collegiate competition or “sport” made its debut in the form of a regatta race between Harvard and Yale (“Intercollegiate History of NCAA” 1). Soon after came the establishment of baseball and collegiate football. In the beginning, competition and funding was organized through student-run campaigns, and school officials had very little control over the intercollegiate sports movement. However, in 1905, after a number of deaths and serious injuries occurred to students playing collegiate football, a group of school officials were summoned together to make a
Kastel 2 series of rules that would emphasize safety within the sport. Just five years later in 1910, this group became established and came to be known as the NCAA (“History of Intercollegiate Athletics” 1). As the years progressed, the NCAA established sanctions not just for football but all sports. Most notably in 1950, the NCAA established that “Students could be awarded scholarships based on their athletic ability, but the funds had to be
Imagine being a college football star and finding out that a jersey representing your school with your name and number on the back is not only selling for $110 in stores nationally, but it is profiting higher than some professional sports jerseys. Now, imagine that you as that student-athlete will not be making a single penny off your institution using your name for monetary profit. Why you ask? Because according to the governing body of collegiate sports, the National Collegiate Athletic Association or NCAA, this would be considered an act that would bring an athlete out of his amateur status. Yet, it is okay to exploit that athlete’s talents as if he or she were a professional athlete and not compensate him or her. The NCAA started off as a small organization whose first objective was to solve an injury crisis in college football. However, with a growing governing power came more change. In 1852, Collegiate competition or “sport” made its debut in the form of a regatta race between Harvard and Yale (“Intercollegiate History of NCAA” 1). Soon after came the establishment of baseball and collegiate football. In the beginning, competition and funding was organized through student-run campaigns, and school officials had very little control over the intercollegiate sports movement. However, in 1905, after a number of deaths and serious injuries occurred to students playing collegiate football, a group of school officials were summoned together to make a
Kastel 2 series of rules that would emphasize safety within the sport. Just five years later in 1910, this group became established and came to be known as the NCAA (“History of Intercollegiate Athletics” 1). As the years progressed, the NCAA established sanctions not just for football but all sports. Most notably in 1950, the NCAA established that “Students could be awarded scholarships based on their athletic ability, but the funds had to be
Cited: "2011-2012 NCAA Division I Manual (August 2011)." NCAA Manual International, and Life – TheAtlantic.com. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. 19 Nov. 2011. Fans. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. "Revenue Vs. Expenses." NCAA Public Home Page - NCAA.org. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. USATODAY.com. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. "Winners and Losers In SEC TV Deal." College Gridiron 365. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.