Every January, the college football season culminates with the national championship game. This year, it was played on Jan. 8 between Ohio State University and the University of Florida.
But while fans and television commentators argue about which team is best, what is often overlooked is the
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exploitation of the players.
College football is a huge money-maker for universities, television networks, corporations and the teams’ coaches. It is an industry fueled by and running squarely within the capitalist system. The players, without which none of this would be possible, see only a tiny fraction of this revenue.
Some players receive scholarships to attend college, but these pale in comparison to the tremendous amounts of money generated by their play on the field. In fact, football players generate wealth and publicity for universities at a rate surpassing that of even the most successful faculty or well-known alumni.
This year, the 64 schools playing in season-ending bowl games will first receive a total of $210 million in appearance fees, including $17 million per team for the six most prestigious bowls. These huge payouts are made possible by ticket prices as high as $325, advertising revenue and television contracts, including a $320 million contract with Fox to televise the national championship game and three others.
Bowl games are also extremely commercialized. Twenty-five of the 32 bowls have corporations in their names, including the Bell Helicopters Armed Forces Bowl, the Capital One Bowl, the Chick-fil-A Bowl and the Papajohns.com Bowl. The playing field and sidelines are filled with ads, and players wear corporate patches on their uniforms, practices forbidden in most professional sports. Even the name of the championship trophy is for sale.
Merchandising and apparel contracts add millions to university coffers, but the players are again shut out. The replica jersey of Ohio State’s quarterback Troy Smith sells for nearly $100. He receives nothing from the revenue generated by each sale. At a recent press conference, a player was prohibited from drinking a specific brand of soft drink because his university was sponsored by a competitor.
Former executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Walter Byers stated, “The wheel of fortune is badly unbalanced in favor of the overseers and against the players. …The coaches own the athletes’ feet, the colleges own the athletes’ bodies, and the supervisors retain the large rewards. That reflects a neoplantation mentality on the campuses that is not appropriate at this time of high dollars.” (Time.com, Oct. 1996)
Television and media coverage also translates into millions of dollars of exposure for the universities. According to Joyce Julius & Associates, which analyzes corporate sponsorship of sporting events, the University of Oklahoma got $52.9 million in publicity by playing in the 2004 championship game.
Football coaches also receive huge salaries, which average $950,000 per year and go as high as $4 million. Some coaches earn a cut of the attendance revenues and bonuses for games won. Football coaches are often a university’s highest paid employees. Endorsement contracts drive their incomes millions higher.
“They’re saving tens of millions by not paying their players,” Smith College sports economist Andrew Zimbalist said about universities, “So they spend it on coaches.” (USA Today, Oct. 16, 2006)
All told, college football is a multi-billion dollar industry. And since universities are classified as “not-for-profit entities,” the huge amounts they earn are tax-exempt.
According to former University of North Carolina president Williams C. Friday, “What we’ve created is a major entertainment industry in this country based on American campuses.” (Washington Post, Dec. 31, 2004)
Players should be compensated
In exchange for the wealth they create for the university and a host of corporations, college football players are given
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scholarships. The value of these scholarships ranges from $9,000 to $38,000 per year, figures that pale next to the millions brought in by football programs. (CollegeBoard.com)
The Aug. 27, 2006, San Jose Mercury News estimated that the University of California Berkeley football program earns more than $25 million per season, but the 85 football scholarships it doles out are worth $16,500 each, totaling $1.4 million. As private donations cover many scholarships, all but a small amount of the $25 million goes to the university.
In addition to playing in the games, the players spend countless hours in practice, year-round strength and conditioning sessions, and media interviews. They spend days away from campus to travel to away games, which occur during the week as well as on weekends.
Due to the rising costs of a college education and limited economic opportunity, many working-class youth pin their hopes on athletic scholarships. Of the small number of students who receive scholarships, the great amount of time required for athletics negatively impacts their academic progress. A whopping 45 percent of football players at major universities leave without graduation, a phenomenon that disproportionately affects African American players.
Football also exposes the athletes to a significant risk of injury that could affect their lives beyond football. Many universities do not offer medical coverage to their athletes, forcing some athletes to pay for sports injuries out of their own pockets. And since scholarships are renewed every year, injured players can have their scholarship revoked.
For the small number of college football players that will play professionally, the National Football League prohibits the entrance of a player into the league until he is three years removed from high school. This rule forces all players to spend at least two years playing college football.
Despite the perception that college football players live in luxury, most players come from working-class backgrounds. The scholarships they receive, if any, cover only tuition and room and board, not other living expenses, leaving them with little money for other necessities. The requirements of school and athletics rarely allow time for employment.
Clearly, scholarships do not fully compensate the players for the tremendous wealth they create for universities and corporations. The gross exploitation of football players—and college athletes in general—must end.
The time has come for players to receive fair compensation for the many hours and the hundreds of millions of revenue dollars they produce for the universities.
