Marshall, Jeffrey

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Texas ScholarWorks

Mar 30Madness in the NCAAje rey marshallThe title “student athlete” holds a lot of weight at any university in the United States, especially when oneplays basketball at Michigan State University, football at the University of Texas, or baseball at the Universityof Florida. These students are often put on a pedestal as they work hard to become the best athletes they canbe, while also attempting to focus on their school work. Obviously, the school work comes first — the wordstudent comes first, not athlete — but many of these students are taking to the gridiron or to a basketballcourt and performing in front of crowds of tens of thousands, making more money for their university andthe National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) than many of them could imagine. These students arenot paid by their universities, which is fair, as they should focus on being students and choosing universitiesthat best suits their needs as both athletes and academics.However, many student athletes are losing out on sponsorship opportunities with the current rules set inplace by the NCAA. They often do not have the time to work a part-time job due to their need to focus onboth their studies and their athletic commitments.Instead the NCAA reaps the rewards of the hard work of student athletes, while also holding those samestudents from approaching any financial gain themselves, including regulating the use of the likenesses ofstudent athletes. Student athletes cannot sell their likenesses to sponsors, such as Nike, Adidas, or UnderArmour, meaning that they do not even have the right to profit off of their own name and image.   V O X  P O P U L IThe current system in the NCAA is corrupt and the most recent NCAA scandal is a perfect example of theissue. Christian Dawkins, a former sports agent, has been accused of bribing many current basketball playersat different universities, in an attempt to get them to pick a university that was in the best interests of him, theuniversity, and the brands that Dawkins was associated with.   Let’s take a look at the investigation into Miles Bridges and his mother, Cynthia. Miles, 19, is a basketballplayer at Michigan State University. He has followed the rules the NCAA has in place for its student athletes,but his name has been dragged through the mud recently in the current Christian Dawkins NCAA scandal.His mother, Cynthia, met with an agent and had a meal at the Redwood Lodge. The meal totaled $70.05, butthe agent had withdrawn $400 from an ATM to pay for the meal. This created an issue, as the NCAA’s rulesdo not allow for extra benefits to be given to student athletes or their families, so this lunch with an agentbrought about a federal investigation into Miles Bridges’ decision to attend Michigan State University.The recent FBI investigations have mainly centered around Christian Dawkins, whose records indicate a longlist of players that are and have been associated with him, many of which have allegedly taken money fromthe agent. On that list is Miles Bridges and his mother who are reported to have taken $400 from the agent.Other players on that list, such as DeAndre Ayton from the University of Arizona, reportedly took $100,000.The University of Texas’ own Eric Davis, Jr. had his season abruptly end after being associated with Dawkins,accused of taking $1500 from the agent.The actions of Dawkins are widely seen to be unethical, as he was actively working against the rules of theNCAA, but they do point to some of the systematic failures of the system imposed by the NCAA. First, thatpeople like Dawkins are even allowed to associate with athletes at different colleges presents an issue to thesystem the NCAA has in place. More importantly, student athletes receive no payment for their time playing,yet can find themselves in legal trouble if they even accept certain offers to have dinner with agents, or evenrecruiters for universities that they are considering.The NCAA makes almost one billion dollars a year off of the March Madness tournament alone, and theplayers performing in the games see none of that money, but rather just receive scholarships to play for auniversity they may only be at for one year before turning to the NBA, though the one and done rule may begone soon.The NBA’s one and done rule has allowed the NCAA to use student athletes that are already prepared to beprofessional athletes on a one year lease. These students attend a university for one year and then declare forthe NBA draft, with no intention of learning anything in their time at the university.Culturebasketball, ncaa, sports, collegeJ E F F R E Y  M A R S H A L LJeffrey Marshall is a freshman student studying Electrical and Computer Engineering at UT, whilealso pursuing a Certificate in Core Texts and Ideas. He is a fanatical sports fan who loves nappingand writing for The Orator in his free time.For example, the University of North Carolina’s sport program got into trouble a few years ago because theirstudents athletes had been taking “paper” courses. Many of these student athletes were reading between a 4thand 8th grade reading level.The Texas Orator recently posted a twitter poll asking its followers their opinions on students athletes, asking“Should student athletes be allowed to profit off of their names and images via sponsorship?” The pollreceived 55 votes, finding 39 respondents (71%) who believed student athletes should be able to profit off oftheir own likenesses, 12 respondents (22%) who believed student athletes should not be able to profit off oftheir own likenesses, and 4 (7%) who did not know. The majority of respondents do see issues with thecurrent regulations placed on student athletes, voting in favor of paying student athletes.The issue is not with the recruiting process, but with the expectation that student athletes should receivenothing for their talents during their time in college. Students athletes should not be receiving bribes toattend certain universities and the NCAA will have to regulate sponsorships for many of the student athletes,but the current laws the association has in place hurt student athletes. The current regulations of the NCAAexpand too far into the lives of student athletes, allowing agents like Christian Dawkins to bribe students togo to the universities of his choosing. Maybe student athletes should not be paid for their likenesses, but thecurrent system in place is corrupting the idea of the student athlete.Related PostsApr 2 Holy Land, Common Ground: IntroductionMar 29 Into The Jungle, Or: The Cha a e of StudentGovernmentFeb 18Have a ConversationMar 11Young Activists are America’s FutureApr 12A Nescient InvestmentLeave a commentThe Texas Orator is a nonpartisan, peer-reviewed political publication that was founded and is maintained byUniversity of Texas at Austin students. We value thorough analysis in our articles and strive to protect theideals of free speech and unhindered access to information on campus and nationwide. We seek to keep thestudent body informed of the implications of ever-changing political climates, both domestically and abroad,from a range of voices and perspectives.Join Our CommunitySubscribe to our weekly newsletter!Email Address  SUBMITD O N A T EPowered by Squarespace

Madness in the NCAA

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Madness in the NCAA

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