Shelbie Harris
Staff Writer
Considering that amateur competition is supposedly a bedrock principle of college athletics, especially in light of the widely accepted modern image of the collegiate athlete, the phrase student-athlete has become as much a corporate euphemism as it has passed away entirely.
Although the multi-million dollar profit of March Madness is over, the battle over compensating college athletes continues to rage and the concern for richer schools becoming richer by feasting upon gargantuan new television contracts lingers.
“When talking about should athletes be paid, [The NCAA] would argue that they don’t necessarily have the money to pay athletes because the majority of all NCAA athletes on the teams that they participate in, lose money,” said Karen Hartman an assistant professor in the Communication, Media and Persuasion Department at ISU.
Hartman’s research interests include student athletes and sports information.
“Critics would say the NCAA is non-profit and they still make billions of dollars, primarily from television contracts and advertising, so where is all that money going?” said Hartman.
She went on to say that NCAA employees are paid large stipends, some head coaches are paid millions of dollars and the argument of student athletes receiving some sort of cut is legitimate, but determining how to divvy up payment remains an issue.
Nonetheless, the evolution of amateurism within athletics is moving in the positive direction regardless of the concern of compensation.
Last August the Power 5 Conferences in collegiate athletics were granted autonomy to create rules free of the full NCAA membership and in January approved the first package of legislation headlined by a full cost-of-attendance measure.
“These rules are evolving in ways that can benefit student athletes,” said Zach Walker, ISU athletic compliance director. “This year, the big rule change was you could add cost-of-attendance to a scholarship, last year the big rule change was being able to provide more meals to student-athletes.”
Regardless of whether this power play will be implemented at Idaho State University, or the other 300 Division I schools across the country, it appears changes to the old archaic rules of amateur athletics are imminent.
Hartman said that other critics believe money really isn’t the issue with approximately only 14 to 22 schools across the country actually making a profit from their sports, but that the real issues should be the NCAA taking their revenue and guaranteeing four-year scholarships and providing solid healthcare for active student-athletes as well as alumni.
“I think there are a variety of ways the NCAA can handle that, but generally amateurism within the NCAA is oftentimes looked at as a joke, and a myth,” said Hartman. “There is no such thing as a student-athlete.”
The amount of hours a student-athlete can dedicate to their team during the season and out-of-season is limited by the NCAA, however compliance of the rule is criticized as being quite often quietly unenforced.
Hartman said that in order to get around this rule it’s possible coaches would have you sign a form that indicates athletes were present for a particular timeframe but will require the athletes to arrive 30 minutes beforehand.
As debate for student-athletes ability to become self-made profitable enterprises at the collegiate level continues, and the concern for college sports no longer being played “for the love of the game” balances on the scales of justice, it’s safe to assume one thing is certain.
Evolution is evident.
“I think no matter how we feel we still have rules that we are required to enforce,” said Steve Schaack, ISU assistant athletic director for media relations.
“The NCAA makes changes, and our job within the athletic department is to make sure we’re following the rules that the NCAA has. Whether that’s compensation, or whether that’s getting paid for their name, [ISU Athletics] will enforce the policies and procedures and we will set our department policies and procedures within that frame as well.”
