English Final Speech- 6th
hour
Brandon Castillo
When the Europeans came to America, they were ready for a
fresh start and freedom. But, the poor ones could not afford the trip to
America so they would have a contract with a rich American that would pay off
the debt of the trip, thus the idea of the indentured servant was born. They
would receive food and housing during the time they worked. But, indentured
servitude is sometimes compared to slavery as both had almost no rights and
worked in harsh conditions. Similarly, when high school athletes go to college,
they are ready for a new team and excitement. But, they have to pay off their
scholarships so they have a letter of intent with rich universities to be able
to play sports at that certain university, thus the idea of the student-athlete
is born. They receive food stipends and housing during the time they work. But,
college athletes are sometimes compared to slaves as they almost have no rights
and worked in harsh conditions.
Just as the injustice of indentured servitude, student
athletes are treated unfairly as the National Collegiate Athletic Association
takes advantage of them and reaps the rewards while the student-athletes get
nothing. The NCAA exploits the two main components of health: mental and
physical well-being of the athlete. But, there are solutions to the problem
that can help the NCAA get back on track and actually help student-athletes
while still keeping their pocket books full with money.
The first aspect of NCAA abuse is economically. While the
NCAA brings in over six billion dollars in revenue, which is more than the NBA,
the athletes get none of it. Sure they get their scholarships which are
definitely worth a lot of money, but not anywhere close to the amount college
coaches, presidents, or athletic directors make. Some numbers made by the New
York Times help put it into perspective: Mack Brown’s 2011 salary as University
of Texas’s Football Coach- $5.1 million vs. combined value of athletic
scholarships for University of Texas football team- $3.1 million; NCAA revenue
from March Madness Tournament- $770 million, NBA seasonal revenue for
television rights- $930 million. So if three weeks, the NCAA makes close to as
much as the NBA makes off television rights for six months. Another outrageous
edict the NCAA enforces is that athletes cannot make any money or receive any
money. If a student-athlete did something as simple as receive a Peppermint
Chocolate Chip Milkshake from Chick-fil-a from a random fan, it is considered a
violation of NCAA rules. In any real-life job or even any other department of a
school, receiving a Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshake would be a nice gift!
It is just one of many senseless rules that the NCAA created.
Another economical issue is the difference between actual
tuition for college compared to the amount received in an athletic scholarship
is $3000 a year according to multiple sources. Now to us, $3000 a year for
college is awesome and we would love to have that deal but to a baby momma with
seven kids and two jobs, that’s a lotta money!
Which moves us onto our next point of the physical health
of the student- athletes are not taken care of by the NCAA. They do not have
enough money for basic necessities like food because of the $3000 dollar
difference. They cannot pay for it because their food stipend lets them have
three meals a day but for a student-athlete burning 4000 calories a day, that’s
not enough. So, they can’t pay and they can’t get help from others, what are
they supposed to do? Starve!? The NCAA says yes. It makes the students starve
through the night until they can get their one portion breakfast in the
morning. But the breakfast will come after you practice for five hours in the
morning. According to the New York Times, athletes can sometimes put in 50 hour
weeks during their sports’ seasons and that’s going to put stress on the
student athletes and wear them out for all four years. This is still all going
on while student-athletes don’t get a dime of any money made by their image or
likeness.
Because of weeks with 5o hours of working on your sports,
the athletes have no chance of getting a real degree. In fact, as stated by the
documentary, schooled, athletes at
big-time colleges like UNC take fake classes in order to keep their grades up
and keep eligiblity. Let me explain “fake classes”. It would be called
independent study , but the only thing you would do is turn in a paper at the
end of the semester to a random professor that you have never meet and he would
give you an A. Sign me up for that class, am I right? If the NCAA really cared
about the student-athlete, it would provide support for the student as he or
she took actually classes and learned information for when the sports ended and
real life began. But, what if you don’t even get the chance to finish your
degree or college athletic career? If you have a very low GPA or break team
rules, you can get your scholarship taken away. This seems fair and logical.
What is irrational is that student-athletes can get their scholarships taken
away if they don’t reach coaches’ expectations or get a career-ending injury. A
tragic scenario- Francisco- a track runner from a poor family- gets a
hard-earned scholarship after working since middle school for it. He’s going to
his dream college and is having a great time until in a race, he fractures his
tibia and can never run again. After that school year, he loses his scholarship
and can’t pay for college anymore. Francisco is depressed and would eventually
run away to the North Pole to find Santa because without a college education,
he never knew that Santa was fake.
To help ease the pain of the losing Francisco, I have
developed a plan with help from a couple sources to combat the NCAA and stop
their reign of terror on the student-athlete forever. The first thing is that
we guarantee four-year scholarships to all student-athletes so even if they get
a career-ending injury, they can still finish with a degree. We would also pay
the athletes. We would do this by making a salary cap to insure big universities
don’t have an advantage over small universities and they can ask star players
for more money while regular players less. I believe that student-athletes that
play in sports that bring in more money should also get paid more money and the
salaries would reflect this belief. There would also be a minimum amount to
insure that every athlete gets enough money to cover all expenses of college.
This would keep collegiate sports competitive and would be rational.
So what do you want me to do Brandon? You can spread the
word and let people know the injustice the NCAA is treating its
student-athletes with. The ridiculous rules cannot be tolerated and the NCAA
needs to be stop.
Schooled:
The Price of College Sports. Dir.s Ross Finkel, Trevor Martin, Jonathan
Paley. Perf. Arian Foster. 2013. Documenary.
Cwynar, Sara. 2011.
Photograph. The New York Times. Web. 6 December 2014 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/lets-start-paying-college-athletes.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
“Let’s start paying
College Athletes.” New York Times. Joe Nocera, 30 December 2011. Web. 6
December 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/lets-start-paying-college-athletes.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
“The Most Evil thing
about College Sports.” Slate Magazine. Josh Levin, 17 May 2012. Web. 6 December
2014. http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2012/05/ncaa_scholarship_rules_it_s_morally_indefensible_that_athletic_scholarships_can_be_yanked_after_one_year_for_any_reason_.html
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