BCT Editorial – 8/22/06

This page was last updated on August 22, 2006.

Charade; Editorial; Beaver County Times; August 22, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Anyone who doubts that college sports isn’t a big business should check out Ohio State’s revenues.

“The Associated Press reported last week that Ohio State’s athletic department has surpassed $100 million in annual revenue for the first time, earning $101.5 million during the past fiscal year.

“Its sports program also finished the 2005-06 fiscal year that ended June 30 with a $2.9 million surplus.

“Which raises a question, and not just about Ohio State: Shouldn’t the athletes who are generating this kind of revenue for their college’s sports programs be compensated from their work?

“If nothing else, paying college athletes would end the charade of pretending they are student-athletes and recognize them for what many of them are - professionals.”

[RWC] Don’t scholarships (tuition and room and board) count as pay? Using Penn State as an example, tuition at University Park is more than $22,000/year and room and board plus meals ranges from about $9,400/year to more than $13,000/year.

What the editorial advocates is paying the athletes cash. Of course, the editorial failed to address what to do with athletes who compete in sports that don’t make money. Remember, at those few schools where the sports program actually supports itself, usually the only sports that generate a “profit” are football and maybe basketball.

Should only those athletes that compete in profitable sports be paid? And what about the team’s stars? Shouldn’t they get more than the benchwarmers?

What about schools that don’t generate a profit? How would they pay athletes? Remember, schools like Penn State fund their athletic programs solely from revenue generated by the athletic programs. No tuition revenue goes to the athletic programs.

I’m not arguing one way or the other on this issue. I’m only pointing out the issue isn’t as simple as the editorial would have us believe.