University Daily Kansan / Friday December 7, 1990
11B
NCAA struggles with athletes financial difficulties
By Chris Oster
Kansan staff writer
"
I would never go so far as to say that we should pay the athletes. I can't think of anybody on this campus who wouldn't love to be in Mark Randall's shoes.
"
Roy Williams Kansas basketball coach
“
Kansas running back Tony Sands knows all about the financial struggles involved with being a college student.
Bob Frederick Kansas athletic director
As far as some sort of stipend for student-athletes, I'm opposed across the board. What I am in favor of is trying to provide help to students with severe financial need so they can be on the same financial level with other students.
Sands fits well into that category His children live in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
"Oh yeah, with two kids to support,
things get real tight," Sands said. "It is pretty hard to get by, especially for students who aren't from the area.
Flying home to see their families is a real burden."
But as Sands struggles to get by, the NCAA faced a problem of its own Monday: how to distribute $1 billion from student loans from a recent contract with CBS.
Student athletes such as Sands, the generators of that revenue, continue to work for the same flat-rate wage the NCAA has allowed colleges to offer for half a century — room, board and an education.
Although few in the field propose cutting the athletes in on a large share of the money, changes are being considered and pushed for by experts, coaches and athletic directors, including some at Kansas.
"Student athletes bring in so much money to the school, but all they see is a scholarship." Sands said. "I'd love to see these kids of the burden off of the athletes."
"
Kansas basketball coach Roy Wilson said he would like to see an increase in the amount of money an athlete was allowed to live on.
"I strongly believe that athletes should be able to live on the same level as other students." Williams and McGraw's scholarship does not allow that.
Although he favors treating the athletes more fairly, Williams said he did not support going too far.
"I would never go so far as to say that we should pay the athletes," he said. "I can't think of anybody on this team." He said love to be in Markland's shoes.
'Indentured servants'
Perhaps the most outspoken critic of the current system is Doug Bandow, a former adviser to the Reagan administration who works for the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Bandow has referred to student-athletes as "indentured servants;" who are powerless once they sign on with a school.
He has stated that although the athletes were given an education, it was not always the primary goal and he did not encourageiate to the money they generated.
"The big problem is that a lot of kids are not really interested in an education," Bandow said. "That benefit is not that important to them."
At Kansas an athletic scholarship pays for a student's tuition, books
and room and board. The room and board figure is the average of all on-campus housing costs. For in-state students, the value of a scholarship is $4,500; the value of an out-of-state scholarship is $7,624.
Bob Frederick, Kansas athletic director, said he would support subtle changes to the current system.
“As far as some sort of stipend for student-athletes, I’m opposed across the board,” he said. “What I am in favor of is to help provide to help me with the financial need so they can be on the same financial level with other students.”
Williams said that he would like to see some sort of need-based allotment for the athletes but that he would much a system could be controlled.
It presents a problem with how the money is distributed. Williams says
Bandow favors more drastic measures.
"The top tier of schools are making an enormous amount of foot on college sports." Bandow said. "What should do is split the system apart."
He proposed that the schools that did not generate a great deal of revenue from athletics be separated from the big-time sports schools.
"Then treat the latter group like a farm system," Bandow said.
He also proposed that the system used in baseball also could be effective in basketball and football
"As far as I'm aware, you don't have the same types of scandals in baseball that you have in basketball and football," he said.
Minor leagues
in baseball, high school players have a choice of whether to play college baseball or minor-league baseball. Dick里克德 said hat system worked well.
"I sure wish there was something like that available," he said. "I don't think the NFL or the NBA would go for that though. If they did, they would have to spend some money. Right now they don't pay anything for the greatest farm system around."
Kansas baseball coach Dave Bingham said the minor league system used in baseball had advantages and disadvantages.
"There are so many advantages of going to college over the pros," he said. "But then you look at a kid like (Todd) Van Poppel (who signed last spring with the Oakland A's). They have a real advantage. He doesn't need to go to school."
"But for the most part, kids prepared to go to school should. It gives them more value both in pro sports and in life."
"in baseball, we have a problem in that we want the best athlete who is also motivated to go to school, and we want the best athletes just aren't ready."
Sands, who said he could not attend college without his football scholarship, said the minor-league proposal would have drawbacks.
"It would be great for some people," he said. "But what if you don't make it to the pro? At least the way we have an education to fall back on."
"They are the enforcer of the cartel," he said. "Their role is to punish a school that tries to pay an athlete. That has nothing to do with protecting the athlete. They just make sure the students get no benefit to make sure no one cheats on the cartel."
Bandow also has been critical of the NCAA, which he says is a cartel similar to OPEC, and its enforcement arm.
early 1900s with the goal of cleaning up college football, now has 828 member institutions and has taken over the role maker and revenge controller.
NCAA like OPEC?
The NCAA, which started in the
Jim Marchiony, public relations director for the NCAA, disputed Bandow's claim.
"The idea that athletes are indentured servants is ludicrous," he said. "Schools provide tuition, room and food for them. Their entire education is paid for."
"If a student-athlete takes advantage of his situation, he is a step ahead of his peers. Such as getting exposure to alumni or boosters, who are willing to help the athlete later in life."
Although Marchiony said athletes were provided for, he said the NCAA, through the athletic directors of its member schools, was considering increasing the compensation of athletes to include trips home and a reasonable amount of spending money.
Marchiony stressed that the NCAA was the schools, not something separate from them.
Del Brinkman, academic adviser for the athletic department, said the way athletes were treated depended on a deal on which schools they attend.
"It's up to the schools to decide," he said. "They could begin paying the athletes tomorrow if that's what the majority wanted."
"I think the key to the way student-athletes are treated is the approach of the institution," he said.
"If the students are treated like athlete-slaves, that's a problem. It doesn't have to be that way."
Brinkman said it was up to the athlete to find a university that treated athletes fairly. He added that a well-run program was important to
Winners and losers
"A winning athletic program is one of the many things that make a university attractive, but it is far more important the only factor," Brinkman said.
The Kansas University Athletic Corporation, which runs the varsity sports programs at Kansas, has an annual budget of almost $9 million.
a school.
The revenues generated by basketball and football and alumni donations spurred by those sports are used to help finance the entire athletic department. The 12 non-revenue sports consume more than $2 million in scholarships, salaries, equipment and maintenance.
Frederick had a problem with people saying athletes were exploited by schools because the money raised by the major sports went to support a lot of other student-athletes in those non-revenue sports.
The distribution of the scholarships is based on a formula used by the NCAA. Football, men's and women's basketball, women's tennis and women's volleyball are considered equally apt athletes who each athlete is given a full scholarship.
The rest of the sports are given a certain number of scholarships that may be divided among all of that sport's participants. It is up to the coach to decide how much of the total amount each athlete should receive.
"Since it is clear that coaches and athletic administrators have used the NCAA to organize a cartel and maximize their gain, it is fair to ask how this has affected the schools and the players," Lawrence wrote.
In his book "Unsponsmanlike Conduct," Paul R. Lawrence, a Washington, D.C., economist who specializes in industrial organization, commented on the state of affairs in college athletics.
The losers . . . scholastically as well as financially — are often the generators of the income, the athletes themselves."
Athletic scholarships
Head-count sports, in which each member of the team that is on scholarship receives a "full" scholarship
Men's
Football 95
Basketball 15
Women's
Basketball 15
Volleyball 12
Tennis 8
Equivalency sports, in which a certain number of scholarships are disbursed among members of a team with more athletes than scholarships. Coaches decide how much an athlete receives out of the total.
Men's
Men's
Baseball 13
Golf 5
Swimming 11
Tennis 5
Track and Cross
Country 14
Women's
Women's Golf 6
Softball 11
Swimming 14
Track and Cross
Country 16
Yearly value of
Scholarships
In-state $4,500
Out-of-state $7,624
As those within the Kansas athletic community talk about changes in the system, Williams looks after the academic concerns of his athletes.
"I would like to see some of the money put back into the school to be used for athletes who didn't finish their degree," he said. "That they could come back within the next 10 years to finish up."
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