61 percent of all Division 1 college basketball players are black. The NCAA makes close to 800 million dollars annually just from selling rights to the March Madness Basketball Tournament to television broadcasters.The athletes receive non of these profits. In 2010, the NCAA signed a 14 year contract, worth 11 billion dollars, with CBS for rights to broadcast the tournament. These profits don't include the profits the broadcasting companies make off of the advertisements, or the profits that the private arenas make by hosting the games. The sole reason people show up and tune in to watch the basketball games is because of the athletes that play in them. Unfortunately for these athletes, they are not allowed to receive even a single cent for their efforts and talent. The NCAA is taking advantage of these student athletes, and 60 percent of these athletes are black. This is exploitation at its finest, and has been compared to modern day slavery.
In addition to the exploitation by the NCAA, the NBA and other professional sports leagues are contributing to, and allowing this exploitation by requiring these athletes to attend at least one year of college. by forcing these athletes into colleges they allow the NCAA the broadcasters and anyone else involved to profit from the athletes unpaid hard work. This system is corrupt and should be changed to allow athletes to be paid for at least a portion of the profits that they are responsible for bringing in.
Moorehead, Monica. (March 25, 2013). Workers.org. Racism, Exploitation and Profits: The Real "March Madness". Retrieved from http://www.workers.org/articles/2013/03/25/racism-exploitation-profits-the-real-march-madness/
Unclear if the closing point is Moorehead's position or the poster's position. Regardless, the exploitation of college athletes at some schools must be rectified. Eitzen (2012, Rowman and Littlfield) in Fair and Foul makes the point that some schools' athletic programs are analogous to a plantation system.
ReplyDeleteAs an athlete, everyone deserves to get paid. It is a full-time job where you put your body on the line every single day. Hopefully in the future, the NCAA will give these athletes a stipend for their hard work.
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