Universities with multi-million athletic budgets have long pushed the narrative that all their athletes were legitimate students when nearly everyone with a brain knew it was not true. Some would not even qualify for admittance is they were not skilled athletes. Many take easy courses approved by the athletic department where enrollment guarantees a C grade. The Universities steer them into Majors where little is required to pass. Many athletes have tutors who are able to “help them” do any written work required. For tests the tutors have old tests to rely on to coach the athletes. The goal for many athletes is to keep them eligible for four or five years or at least until the pros draft them.
Now the athletes are considered employees, so they are entitled to a salary. Will we soon be seeing signing bonuses for College Teams? It was a shock seeing college athletes turning down pro offers because they could make more playing ball for the schools with the multi-million- dollar budgets. Now that there is an admission that college athletes are professional, some big changes are needed. First, as the athletes are now considered employees, and they have a right to join a union. This means they can bargain for higher wages, medical insurance, retirement benefits, holiday pay and every other benefit an employee can bargain for. Since they are employees, they should not have the requirement of taking classes. They could take as many courses as they want to prepare for the when they are too old to continue playing sports, but they should have to pay for the courses since they will have good paying jobs. The athletes should be able to play as long as they want to if they can still perform.
Universities rake in millions each year from their sports teams. Sports teams should not be considered a part of the core mission of tax-exempt universities and should be taxed. This should be considered a business by IRS and the colleges should be taxed on their earnings. These college businesses should also be subject to anti-trust laws just like any other business. Winning teams bring in a lot of money from their alumni that goes into the sports team business. This money should be considered income since it is not used for educational purposes.
The core mission of universities once was preparing students for careers. For many the core mission now is earning money from their sports teams and promoting their schools through their professional sports teams. It is high dollar entertainment. Those universities who are still in the education business or cannot afford a sports business should form a new athletic association for amateur athletics and let the NCAA be a professional sports organization. And should I add some people think one of the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was an obsession with sports and entertainment.
This is a blog for Conservatives and People of Faith.