Amateurism In College Sports

Many court cases are beginning to arise due to former players realizing the NCAA unfair rules and guidelines, and it needs to be changed drastically. Two students on the Northwestern football team created a petition to be able to unionize and be compensated for their play, however, the National Labor Relation Board declined to give jurisdiction in the athletes’ case (Strauss) (this is another work from the same author). Although the board denied compensation for athletes, their reasoning was that college athletes are students first. They avoided the main point of the case which was William Goud, a former labor board chairman, thinks the student athletes have a good case by stating "The principle reason for that is their work -- they have …show more content…
The NCAA has specific rules and guidelines that all athletes are obligated to follow. Taylor Branch, writer of “The Shame of College Sports,” states that before student athletes are allowed to play, they are required to sign a waiver clause called “The Student-Athlete Statement.” The clause states that the athletes are considered amateurs, their ACT scores are valid, and they will report any educational information that is requested of them, but this still troubles many athletes. They believe if they are truly amateurs that they should not be endorsed and sold based off their likeness. In “Former star college athletes sue NCAA for right to make money” in the CNN wire, Ed O’Bannon, a former UCLA basketball player, decided to sue the NCAA for violation of antitrust laws because he in a NCCA college basketball video game without his …show more content…
According to the article “Pay to Play,” many college athletes receive scholarship money, but most athletic scholarships do not even cover a full tuition for the athlete (Bagaria, Akash, and Birkenes) When the NCAA first allowed colleges to grant scholarships, it was awarded to athletes for all four years, but now scholarships are renewed on a yearly basis (Sack). Because the scholarships are given out every year, athletes run the expensive risk of getting them taken away due to getting injuries or turning out to be recruiting mistakes (find different wording). Some injuries may be severe enough to prevent an athlete from playing ever again. College coaches can see this as a waste of a scholarship because the student is no longer eligible to play, and they decide to take the scholarship. Unfortunately, the athlete is stuck with paying for all the medical bills and the cost of the school for the future years. In the New York Times article "A Fight to Save College Athletes from the Ordeal of Injury Costs,” writer Ben Strauss talks about Kyle Hardricks, a basketball player at Oklahoma, lost his scholarship when he tore his meniscus during a fall practice. Valerie Hardrick, Kyle’s mother, was forced to pay for her son’s medical exams and surgery with her insurance that the