"BROKE COLLEGE ATHLETE: ANYTHING HELPS."
Nigel Hayes, starting forward for the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team, held a sign with those words on it while at the college football show College GameDay when it came to UW's campus for the Badger football game on October 15th.
He did this in order to spark more discussion on the amount of money that the Big Ten makes because of the Big Ten athletes. He isn't wrong—due to their new TV deal, the Big Ten conference can expect to make around $440 million next year, and the University of Wisconsin will most likely get upwards of $40 million next year in revenue from the Big Ten.
Hayes supported his protest with these tweets:
"You make a company millions. They "pay" you with only a college education (estimated UW $160,000).Fair, right?"
"The @bigten made nearly $450 million. My scholarship is about $160,00. If only there was enough money to pay us.."
Being from Wisconsin, I am a huge fan of Wisconsin basketball, and I am an equally huge fan of Nigel Hayes. I love that Hayes uses his platform to raise awareness about topics that he feels are important. As I first began looking into this particular issue, I thought the points Hayes brought to light are very valid. I thought that since the Big Ten makes such a large sum of money off of their athletes, these players ought to be given a check for at least a fraction of the revenue they bring in.
However, now that I've considered the other side of the argument, I have now come to the decision that I don't agree. Division 1 athletes are paid. They are paid in scholarship: full tuition and housing at a highly prestigious school. Not only are they getting the opportunity to go to college and earn a degree for free, they also get to play the sport they love while doing it.
I fully understand that college athletics is a huge commitment, because I am a college athlete myself. I am an NAIA athlete who spends just as much time and effort on athletics as a D1 athlete does, and yet many Big Ten athletes like Nigel Hayes will have the opportunity to go professional and actually get paid whereas as an NAIA athlete, I know I will not have that opportunity. This is why I lack sympathy for D1 athletes wishing they were paid on top of their full ride scholarships. While D1 athletes complain about being "broke" while sitting in their dorm fully paid for by the school, eating food fully paid for by the school, studying for classes fully paid for by the school, NAIA athletes are actually broke because they have to struggle to pay their college expenses while investing the same amount of time and energy into their sports, classes, jobs, and other commitments.
Even if a D1 athlete decides not to play professionally or doesn't get drafted, they will still have the blessing of a degree that they earned while playing four years of the sport they love. College isn't supposed to be paid like a career, it is supposed to prepare you for your future career, whether that is going pro or using your degree.
It would also simply not be practical to pay college athletes. While the Big Ten does make a lot of money, there are also a lot of athletes in this conference. It would be impossible to divide up the money and decide which athletes should and shouldn't get paid, and how much. Not to mention, the vast majority of the Big Ten's revenue comes from football and men's basketball, so then there would be inequality with pay between sports and between men's and women's teams.
Athletic programs would have to be cut drastically in order to make room in the budget for salaries, and that isn't a realistic or beneficial way to develop these programs. Division 1 NCAA athletics isn't supposed to be a market, it's supposed to be the highest level of competition in college sports.
In my humble opinion, I believe Division 1 athletes should count their blessing to be playing the sport they love while on a full ride at a college they love, and because of this, I also believe that they don't need to be paid.
