Let
Student-Athletes Pay Taxes
As tax season comes to a close and all the standard complaints
against the IRS is heard, there are some who might be more than happy to pay
taxes, if they only got paid for their services.
Student-athletes aren’t paid, despite the fact that March
Madness has netted their respective 32 universities about $1 billion with
around 30 million viewers for the championship game. Total viewing of all the
games was larger than the 2015 Super Bowl of 120 million.
The NCAA remains steadfast in its reasoning for not
“professionalizing” collegiate sports, claiming athletes aren’t “employees,”
but instead amateurs. Given the amount of money involved here, many find this stance
both unfair and hypocritical.
The designation of student-athlete is also a legal ploy
that shields universities from paying any compensation for injuries while
playing for the team; no workers’ compensation can be claimed or granted to “non-employees.”
Unlike the competition to attract student-athletes, coaches’
salaries at high profile institutions are rising to levels seen only in
professional sports. In basketball, just look at Nick
Saban of Alabama at $7.3 million, Bob Stoops of Oklahoma at $5.25 and Jim
Harbaugh at Michigan $5 million.
True, only about 10
Division I athletic programs are profitable, according to most reports, but the
accounting used for this assessment is always problematic. Even so-called
“losing” programs can attract alumni contributions and help significantly with freshmen
recruitment in ways difficult to measure, but that surely exist.
Assuming that university
presidents will never collectively decide to turn their “professional” athletic
programs into truly amateur ones, where the love of sports and student spirit
reign, is there a middle ground between these two poles?
From its inception with
Adam Smith, economic literature has always tried to keep a core of moral values
afloat so as to justify private property, for example, and market exchanges.
Given the sheer size of
the collegial athletic market, is there any moral ground for outlawing student
compensation? Academic scholarships are usually counted as a compensation but
in fact carry with them very low marginal cost (of having one more student in a
class when 30 others are already paying).
If the outright payment
to athletes is inappropriate, how about establishing a personal account for
each athlete and contributing to it $50,000 annually. If an athlete plays for
four years, his/her account reaches $200,000 (plus interest) and s/he has a
nice nest-egg upon graduation.
Given that only 2% of
student-athletes ever make it to the professional leagues, the other 98% may at
least have some financial compensation for their contributions to the coffers
of their Alma Maters.
As for injuries, student-athletes
should be added to university employees’ plans, so that their treatment and
rehabilitation over the years will be covered by proper insurance. If it’s good
enough for the coaches, why not extend it to their players?
The University of Texas
(Austin) athletic revenue for 2012-13 was in excess of $165 million; a million
or two set aside for graduating athletes would easily allow the program to retain
its overall net profits.
Since there is no
reasonable economic argument against sharing the revenue of athletic programs
with those on whose backs success is achieved, and since there is no moral
argument against it either, what is the obstacle to this common sense proposal?
Perhaps it’s the myth of
amateurs competing solely for the
love of the sport, as if this competition is happening in an economic vacuum
and all amateur athletes share the same motivation.
Or it may harken back to
gladiators who competed in the arenas for their lives, and if lucky enough, for
their freedom. True, athletes are not slaves in the technical or legal sense of
the term, but on an economic level, they are treated as such.
Even if we solve the
financial dimension, what about the “student” part of the designation? The
hypocrisy here is even more upsetting. From Ronald Smith’s Pay for Play (2010) to Jay Smith & Mary Willingham’s Cheated (2015), it becomes clear that
athletes’ education is compromised.
It’s not only scandalous
that student-athletes are cheated out of their rightful share of the money they
earn for their universities, it’s even more alarming that they are exploited
for their talents with complete disregard to their academic work.
If 98% of
student-athletes never make it to the professional arena, and if they lack the
skills higher-education is supposed to provide them with, what are they
supposed to do?
We should let
student-athletes pay taxes, it’s the right thing to do!
Raphael
Sassower is professor of philosophy at UCCS. He can be reached at rsassower@gmail.com See
previous articles at sassower.blogspot.com
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