@mdm @mekkaokereke oh, colleges should absolutely be paying their athletes.
@bedirthan Is that in addition to paying their tuition? @mdm @mekkaokereke
No. Athletic scholarships should be ended, and athletes should be paid fair market value instead.
Sports leagues are supposed to pay ~50% of revenues to players. That's the standard amount for NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, European soccer leagues, etc.
If you sum up every NCAA scholarship, it comes to closer to 2% of revenue.🤡
Where's that missing 48%?
We need to stop acting like sports scholarships are a favor to athletes. They're not.
@mekkaokereke Either they’re students, or they’re professional athletes. Basically college athletes are getting a paid internship, which is unavailable to any other student, and not even for every athlete. @bedirthan @mdm
That either/or is a false dichotomy.
They're students, and they're professional athletes.
Just like some people are students and employees of the university working in the computer lab or library. Students that work in the computer lab may have access to facilities that general students don't.
Other students even have jobs outside the university. They can be professional athletes outside the school. Eg, NBA players coming back to get a degree while still playing
@mekkaokereke Except they’re trying to do both full time. @bedirthan @mdm
You know Black students, so without even asking, I know that you know full time students that work full time jobs.
@mekkaokereke Fewer and fewer. @bedirthan @mdm
@AlliFlowers @mekkaokereke @bedirthan @mdm
That would be a reasonable argument if the education they were getting were in any way equal to what the school puts towards athletics.
The school is using your ability to throw a ball to bankroll themselves (see the average salary of an NCAA football coach) and not the school.
If the football coach makes more than the art teacher, the athlete should be paid.
@deirdrebeth Our Maybe the Art teacher should get a raise. @mekkaokereke @bedirthan @mdm
@AlliFlowers @mekkaokereke @bedirthan @mdm
Sure! If an NCAA program said "We're not comfortable with our athletes being paid as they're here to learn, so we're going to take all overages, and plow them back into school programs in the way of a non-profit." No paid advertising, no new arenas until the rest of the school gets their upgrades. No coaching salaries higher than average for that institution. I'd would applaud them for their efforts.
@deirdrebeth I like that. I would definitely get behind any program that did that. @mekkaokereke @bedirthan @mdm
Your choices:
A) Full ride scholarship to Georgia Tech, worth $35K a year! But, I refuse to pay you.
B) No scholarship! Pay your own damn tuition! But I will pay you $850K a year to play football for me!
There is no student both smart enough to get into Georgia Tech, but simultaneously not smart enough to take deal B) over deal A).
@mekkaokereke @AlliFlowers @mdm additionally, if the defense is to claim they are interns, that's fine.
Every single college would be shut down due to the massive labor violations that are college sports (lack of breaks, lack of legal compensation, hours worked, OSHA, etc)
@bedirthan Maybe that’s why they don’t do it that way. @mekkaokereke @mdm
@bedirthan I’m just gonna take a moment to brag on my child Henry. Take a look at https://www.blackincancer.com. Go to the meet the team tab and scroll down to Henry, Cancer Awareness. @mekkaokereke @mdm
@AlliFlowers Thank you so much for sharing this!
If every argument on the internet resulted in this quality of sharing I'd spend more time doing it
@bedirthan I try my best.
@mekkaokereke I have a former student who is now a PhD cancer researcher. In college, he was a cheerleader. Do they get paid to? No. Should they? They put in as much time practicing as the kids passing the ball. @bedirthan @mdm
Getting paid is not about how much time you put in, and you know that. The existence of jobs on campus, is not in contradiction to clubs on campus.
But yes, if your cheerleader is an employee of the university, they should get paid a fair market wage. Let me know when that cheerleading league makes more money than (checks notes) English premier soccer, La Liga, and Bundesliga, combined.
On that day, I will be advocating for cheerleaders to get 50% revenue too.
@mekkaokereke So you’re suggesting that athletes be university employees, who are then allowed to take 1-2 classes per semester? @bedirthan @mdm
I'm suggesting that athletes be university employees, just like any other university employees.
There should be the same restrictions (or more accurately, lack thereof) placed on athletes as on any other member of the student body.
@mekkaokereke Once more? I’m confused now. @bedirthan @mdm
@mekkaokereke @AlliFlowers @bedirthan @mdm
Athletics connected to universities should be only be done on a community or club basis. (I know, it's not going to happen, and I'm at a D3 school...). If ESPN et al. need minor-league level football to fill their schedules, they can organize and pay for pre-NFL leagues. Athletes in those leagues should be paid. If they choose to spend some of their earnings on getting a university education, that would be excellent.
@AlliFlowers @mdm @mekkaokereke
Even partial scholarships in non-revenue sports require 3-6 hours a day of practice 5+ days a week for 9 months of the year.