The NCAA made over $1 billion dollars in annual revenue for the first time ever in 2016. The revenue is set to continuously rise each year in the future. Even with these huge profits, college athletes who make this money for the NCAA are still unable to use their own image/endorsements for profit. On top of that they aren’t being paid anything by the NCAA for their actual work. That is truly absurd. 

Just like any other line of work, the typical college football player dedicates 40+ hours a week of work and commitment to solely football. On top of that they are expected to balance school as a first priority, as well as a social life, family, and more. It is ridiculous that these players are working a 40+ hour week, and balancing everything else a college student is supposed to do and doing so without ANY compensation. Even if their name is used in branding/advertising they cannot be paid as it is against NCAA regulations. These athletes put their lives, personal well-being (both physical and mental health), time, and futures on the line to play the sports that we watch and subscribe to on TV or pay tickets for and attend. With all this risk, they need to be compensated for their work. 

Recently, California has taken the first steps towards athletes being compensated for their image/likeness being used in sports brands, advertisements, and more. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Fair Pay to Play Act or the FPPA. It is set to go into effect for California in 2023 and allows college athletes to profit off of their image and name being used as advertising. The fact that college athletes weren’t already being paid for the use of their name and image in ads is ridiculous. College athletes cannot profit off of the sales of their own jersey! 

The FPPA also assists in equal pay for both men’s and women’s sports. This act allows the athletes, based solely on their popularity and publicity, to profit off of the use of their name. It allows male and female athletes to profit more equally off of the use of their names, rather than the more popular sport. 

In response to the FPPA act, the NCAA threatened to ban California teams from bowl games and championships unless the bill is dropped. But, since the bill is set to go into effect in 2023 it gives other states in the US time to adopt and ratify the bill California is proposing and bring enough attention to it to consider the bill a national law. If this is the case, the NCAA wouldn’t be able to ban every state from a championship game, then nobody would be playing. If most or all of the states ratify this into a national law, the NCAA would then be forced to allow college athletes to profit off of their name/image used in advertisements. 

The NCAA is no longer an organization, they have become a big business that profits off of unpaid labor through college athletes. The NCAA builds up huge amounts of revenue, getting bigger and bigger each year, off of unpaid labor.  The NCAA made over 1 billion dollars in 2016, $760 million of it came from the March Madness basketball tournament. 3/4 of 2016’s revenue came from one sport, men’s basketball. Not a single basketball player was paid a single cent for their work. The NCAA also made $130 million off of ticket revenue, and $60 million off of marketing. Much of the money does go back to the programs, but it never directly reaches the athletes in the true form of money. It comes indirectly, in the form of upgraded locker rooms, scholarships, or other gifts but never money itself.

So, why are giant corporations allowed to use big time college athletes as advertising for no cost? This philosophy and current system allows the big corporations like Nike and Adidas for example to get bigger and richer without paying the athletes who are already going unpaid for their work in the sport. The NCAA and the corporations are all one big linked business. If the corporations are forced to pay the athletes, they’ll stop using the college athletes in advertising, which then drops the NCAA profits due to the business deals with the corporations. 

Most of these colleges would be less prestigious without their sports programs. Take Gonzaga and men’s basketball for example, or Alabama and football. Neither of these schools would be as popular as they are without their respective sports. These athletes provide for their colleges, but the colleges don’t give back in return. 

California has taken the first steps needed to help college athletes. Now, it’s up to the rest of the U.S. to step in and end the greed of the NCAA and the scam of unpaid labor for college athletes.