College sports have become a universal pastime for many Americans. Popularity of college sports has peaked with the 2014 inaugural college football playoffs, becoming “[t]he two most-watched broadcasts in cable TV history,” with a combined total of 56.5 million viewers between the two semifinal games according to CNN (Pallotta). Young men playing college sports are exciting as it brings back the college atmosphere that many older individuals crave. However, some question if African-American players in football and basketball are being exploited by the greedy NCAA supporting racial discrimination and cashing in on these innocent, unpaid students?
Donald H. Yee attempts to answer this question by displaying a world of athletes, mostly represented …show more content…
Yee then shows a compelling statistic that “87.5 percent of head football coaches... were white...[and] [i]n the 2013-14 season, 76 percent of head basketball coaches in Division I were white” (Yee). Despite these statistics, the persuasive argument that Donald Yee makes is a weak and under supported one.
Racial injustice has been an especially hot topic in recent years, some cases even causing riots and political changes. These accusations have had some compelling evidence to them. In this case, however, the evidence that Yee presents falls short of convincing. Paying college athletes is an inevitable and mostly needed change, but to accuse the NCAA of being racist goes far further than my beliefs allow. An item that Yee should have used would be the national poverty rate by race. According to the The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, based on the Census Bureau’s March 2014 Current Population Survey, in the United States 10% of the white population are in poverty compared to 27% of the black community (“Poverty Rate”). That fact would have added extra support and may even lead some to believe that the African-American college athletes should be paid …show more content…
Yee as the author. According to The Washington Post mini biography at the beginning of the opinion editorial, “Donald H. Yee is a lawyer and partner with Yee & Dubin Sports, which represents athletes and coaches, including New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton.” (Yee). In an interview by Sactown Magazine with, Don Yee clarifies that he is indeed a sports agent (Vanairsdale). Now that it is established that Yee is a sports agent, his bias’ may have been altered in the eyes of the reader. Also considering that the average NBA career is about 4.5 years according to the NBA website (Lopez) and the average NFL career is about 3.3 years according to the NFL Players Association (“Average NFL”), having sports agents represent college athletes would more than double the time the agent would get with that particular athlete on average. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the agents of athletes make an average salary of $64,200 (“How Much”). With college athletes being represented by agents (which seems inevitable if college players would be paid), many agents would get on average another $256,800 assuming that the payment system for professionals and college athletes is somewhat parallel to each other. Even if $200,000 is a large assumption, it is
Donald H. Yee attempts to answer this question by displaying a world of athletes, mostly represented …show more content…
Yee then shows a compelling statistic that “87.5 percent of head football coaches... were white...[and] [i]n the 2013-14 season, 76 percent of head basketball coaches in Division I were white” (Yee). Despite these statistics, the persuasive argument that Donald Yee makes is a weak and under supported one.
Racial injustice has been an especially hot topic in recent years, some cases even causing riots and political changes. These accusations have had some compelling evidence to them. In this case, however, the evidence that Yee presents falls short of convincing. Paying college athletes is an inevitable and mostly needed change, but to accuse the NCAA of being racist goes far further than my beliefs allow. An item that Yee should have used would be the national poverty rate by race. According to the The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, based on the Census Bureau’s March 2014 Current Population Survey, in the United States 10% of the white population are in poverty compared to 27% of the black community (“Poverty Rate”). That fact would have added extra support and may even lead some to believe that the African-American college athletes should be paid …show more content…
Yee as the author. According to The Washington Post mini biography at the beginning of the opinion editorial, “Donald H. Yee is a lawyer and partner with Yee & Dubin Sports, which represents athletes and coaches, including New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton.” (Yee). In an interview by Sactown Magazine with, Don Yee clarifies that he is indeed a sports agent (Vanairsdale). Now that it is established that Yee is a sports agent, his bias’ may have been altered in the eyes of the reader. Also considering that the average NBA career is about 4.5 years according to the NBA website (Lopez) and the average NFL career is about 3.3 years according to the NFL Players Association (“Average NFL”), having sports agents represent college athletes would more than double the time the agent would get with that particular athlete on average. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the agents of athletes make an average salary of $64,200 (“How Much”). With college athletes being represented by agents (which seems inevitable if college players would be paid), many agents would get on average another $256,800 assuming that the payment system for professionals and college athletes is somewhat parallel to each other. Even if $200,000 is a large assumption, it is