As the NCAA works to find a way to manage the way athletes are compensated for name, image and likeness, other threats are gathering.

At a reception attended by several university presidents in Manhattan, Arizona State President Michael Crowe was asked to ponder a not-too-distant future where Sun Devils football and basketball players get a cut from the billions of dollars their sports generate in media rights deals.

“I don’t support that. And so are we preparing for it? The answer is no, we’re not,” Crowe recalled. “That is not an outcome which is conducive, in my view, to the success of the pluralistic, gender-balanced, college-sports framework that we presently have in the United States.”

All the same, the NCAA and major college sports conferences are facing yet another antitrust lawsuit — among other legal and political challenges — that could force decision-makers to reckon with a reality where some athletes are paid employees or at least get money in a revenue-sharing model that looks a lot like professional sports.

House vs. the NCAA is a class-action lawsuit being heard in the Northern District of California by Judge Claudia Wilken, whose previous rulings in NCAA cases paved the way for college athletes to profit from their fame and for schools to direct more money into their hands.

  • Kbobabob@lemmy.world
    31·
    11 months ago

    They are not employees though. I support paying them though, I just don’t have a good answer for how.

    • goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org
      5·
      11 months ago

      That’s exactly why they do everything they can to no pay them because if they get paid and become employees they get actual protections

      • MaroonMage@lemmy.world
        7·
        11 months ago

        Paying them with an education is a good start, but it’s a pittance compared to the amount of money they are bringing in for other people. Arguing that their education is the only compensation they should be getting is akin to saying “we don’t need to pay the staff at our restaurant because we give them a free lunch during their shift.”

        I don’t know what the answer is, but continuing to just offer them a scholarship while the adults in charge make money off their labor definitely isn’t it.