7. Why Students Aren’t Paid to Play

National Collegiate Athletic Association

The following is from the NCAA’s Web site, found under the heading “Key Issues.”

Student-athletes are students first and athletes second. They are not university employees who are paid for their labor.

The benefits of the student-athlete experience are many. Student-athletes graduate at a higher rate than the general student body. Most do so while playing the sport they love and preparing for a future as a professional in something other than sports. Many receive athletics grants-in-aid that can be worth more than $100,000. NCAA studies show that student-athletes enjoy high levels of engagement in academics, athletics and community; have positive feelings about their overall athletics and academic experiences; attribute learning invaluable life skills to being a student-athlete; and are more likely to earn similar or higher wages after college than non-student-athletes.

Critics argue that student-athletes generate large amounts of money for the institution and therefore should be compensated. That argument ignores the fact that intercollegiate athletics programs are necessarily composed of many sports, many of which generate significant expenses over revenues. Only about two dozen programs nationally, all of them large Division I programs, actually yield revenues over expenses after the bills are paid. The remainder rely to varying degrees on institutional financial support.

Some pay-for-play advocates suggest eliminating nonrevenue sports and paying football and men’s basketball players because of the perceived profitability of those sports. In fact, however, only 30 percent of Division I football and 26 percent of Division I men’s basketball programs post revenues over expenses.

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Likewise, almost all NCAA championships “lose money.” However, overall NCAA revenue, primarily derived from the Association’s media agreements and the popularity of the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, helps 400,000 student-athletes at more than 1,000 member institutions learn and compete in 23 sports and 88 national championships.