10-01-2019, 09:17 AM
I've made this point on this board before, but I remain flabbergasted that the NCAA has refused to innovate in this area, even when profits from college football and basketball programs continue to climb. Where schools are building lavish football lounges and practice facilities because the NCAA bars them from actually sharing some of the profits with the players who helped generate them, something is woefully wrong.
A simple proposal: schools set aside a certain percentage of athletic profits and creates 401(k) accounts for student-athletes. Or HSAs, since you can invest once those go beyond a certain threshold. Or you provide health insurance after graduation to those athletes who have been injured representing Stanford (there would be a sliding scale, and some formula to determine what sort of benefits you'd actually get, taking into account likely subconcussive impacts, etc.). The idea of health insurance to bridge the gap until Medicare would cover them is appealing to me, as it recognizes the physical risks athletes take on behalf of the university. If representing Stanford has caused a student to be physically impaired (or at greater risk of future injury/illness), we have a moral obligation to that student beyond the value of the degree we confer.
The point is this: sharing money with students doesn't have to destroy amateur athletics. The NCAA could have been creative about this and led on the issue years ago, and that would have lessened the pressure for players to be able to make their own endorsement money. But the horse looks to be out of the barn now, and by resisting as long as they have, the NCAA and its member institutions may have lost the ability to help control the future.
Talk about a 40-year decision! Come here, and not only will you get a degree more valuable than any other in the FBS, but a percentage of the profits you help generate will be there for you in a retirement account down the line.
The core of amateurism can still be maintained without the distasteful excess that some of us fear might come of this. But that's not going to happen unless the NCAA and individual schools start trying to shape the world to come instead of just letting change happen to them. (From a legal perspective, I would think an account that accrues while a student is attending but is accessible only at some time after graduation doesn't have to present a NCAA eligibility concern.)
A simple proposal: schools set aside a certain percentage of athletic profits and creates 401(k) accounts for student-athletes. Or HSAs, since you can invest once those go beyond a certain threshold. Or you provide health insurance after graduation to those athletes who have been injured representing Stanford (there would be a sliding scale, and some formula to determine what sort of benefits you'd actually get, taking into account likely subconcussive impacts, etc.). The idea of health insurance to bridge the gap until Medicare would cover them is appealing to me, as it recognizes the physical risks athletes take on behalf of the university. If representing Stanford has caused a student to be physically impaired (or at greater risk of future injury/illness), we have a moral obligation to that student beyond the value of the degree we confer.
The point is this: sharing money with students doesn't have to destroy amateur athletics. The NCAA could have been creative about this and led on the issue years ago, and that would have lessened the pressure for players to be able to make their own endorsement money. But the horse looks to be out of the barn now, and by resisting as long as they have, the NCAA and its member institutions may have lost the ability to help control the future.
Talk about a 40-year decision! Come here, and not only will you get a degree more valuable than any other in the FBS, but a percentage of the profits you help generate will be there for you in a retirement account down the line.
The core of amateurism can still be maintained without the distasteful excess that some of us fear might come of this. But that's not going to happen unless the NCAA and individual schools start trying to shape the world to come instead of just letting change happen to them. (From a legal perspective, I would think an account that accrues while a student is attending but is accessible only at some time after graduation doesn't have to present a NCAA eligibility concern.)