Research Blog #4: Research Proposal

Daniel Bury

Professor Goeller

Research in Disciplines: College!

March 8th, 2016

Research Proposal

Working Title: Now or Never: Pay College Athletes

Topic

My goal is to discuss the popular argument of whether or not college athletes should be paid. The paper will shed light on the fact that college athletes are generating an enormous amount of revenue without receiving a dime for it.

Research Question

With the amount of revenue being brought in from college athletics, should big time collegiate sports be considered an extracurricular activity or a job?

Theoretical Frame

The main thought in this argument is that big time colleges that have enough money to pay their athletes, should be paying their athletes. An article written by Ryan Vanderford called “Pay-For-Play” explains a very important term in this debate that some argue has allowed the NCAA to get away with not paying their players. Vanderfold states in 1953, a football player from the University of Denver got hurt in a game, and sued the University claiming he was obligated to workers compensation for his injuries. The Colorado Supreme Court stated that the player was an “employee” within the meaning of Colorado’s worker compensation law. The NCAA was stunned, and quickly reacted by creating a term to shift the view of players being “employees”, and instead being seen as “student-athletes”. I am curious to see how much power the term “student-athlete” actually holds in allowing the NCAA to label their athletes as just that; a student-athlete, instead of something more.
"A Plan for Compensating Student-Athletes,"an article written by Steve Murphy and John Pace, does a great job at explaining ways that the NCAA is exploiting student-athletes. The NCAA is a money driven organization, and it is could actually be viewed as one of the enterprises that is cautioned off in it's own constitution. The article ultimately introduces a plan that could be used to compensate student-athletes with the money that is rightfully theirs.

Research Plan

An article titled “Pay or Don't Play” by Louis Barbash, explains that college basketball will decline in talent if players do not start getting paid for their play. Originally the only way to the NBA was to play in college, but now with different leagues emerging that pay players, many recruits will look to go there instead of risking a career ending injury playing for free in college. Another issue for college basketball is the new “one and done” rule which only requires student athletes to play one year in college before becoming eligible for the NBA draft. In time, college basketball will start to decline in talent, competition, and ultimately interest. Barbash goes on to offer solutions to colleges trying to figure out this debate of how to pay their players, such as letting colleges run their teams like they do other campus based enterprises, such as public radio and TV stations or hospitals. These programs pay their producers or nurses, as should colleges that are generating revenue off of their athletes.

“Pay-For-Play: An Age-Old Struggle for Appropriate Reform in a Changing Landscape between Employer and Employee” an article by Ryan Vanderford, will help me show how much colleges are actually making off of some student athletes. Vanderford makes a claim at a football player at the University of Texas is worth, on average, $578,000, and the school only actually spends $37,000 on each player. By showing real examples like this one, it will allow me to surface the reality of how much these players are being used for business purposes, and that they deserve their cut.

I also want to clarify my research question. Obviously all college sports are not generating enough money to be able to pay their players, so I will explain what programs are truly deserving of this reward. I will explain how most big time programs cannot be considered an “extracurricular activity” because of how many hours a week are required to be put in by players and relating that to the amount of hours a week required by a full time job. I will also explain how Rutgers and other members of the Big 10 are actually beginning to pay their players.