Let’s get this out of the way: NCAA amateurism, the system that lets predominately white coaches and executives become millionaires on the back of predominately black labor, is an exploitative, racist, and broken system that needs to be reformed yesterday.
The statistics back this up. A 2013 study by the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education found that black men made up less than three percent of the overall student population at the six biggest athletic conferences, and yet black men accounted for 57 percent of the football players and 64 percent of the basketball players in said programs. But despite the fact that the television rights for March Madness alone have increased by 4,535 percent in the last 30 years, the NCAA now makes over $1 billion in revenue, and 72 NCAA football coaches are making more than $1 million a year, there still isn’t enough money to pay the players.
University of California-Los Angeles quarterback Josh Rosen, who some predict will be the top pick in the 2018 NFL draft, is the latest to point out how unjust the model is. In an interview with Bleacher Report this week, Rosen dismantled the most pervasive argument against paying college athletes: that the “education” the NCAA football players receive is adequate compensation.
“Look, football and school don’t go together. They just don’t,” Rosen said. “Trying to do both is like trying to do two full-time jobs.”
This isn’t the first time that Rosen has spoken out against amateurism. Last year, he told CBS Sports he had teammates who couldn’t pay rent, and weren’t able to get a real education due to the time they were required to spend on football.
“People say, ‘You’re just being an ignorant rich kid,'” Rosen told CBS’s Dennis Dodd. “I understand I come from affluence and a privileged family, but no one who is at risk is going to speak out.”
This week, Rosen said that players get trapped in these systems because it’s the only way for them to get to the NFL, but if they have the talent to get to the NFL, those around them will do anything necessary to push their eligibility through, which then denies them an education. He says that many proposed fixes, such as raising SAT eligibility requirements, won’t solve the problem.
Any time any player puts into school will take away from the time they could put into football. They don’t realize that they’re getting screwed until it’s too late. You have a bunch of people at the universities who are supposed to help you out, and they’re more interested in helping you stay eligible. At some point, universities have to do more to prepare players for university life and help them succeed beyond football. There’s so much money being made in this sport. It’s a crime to not do everything you can to help the people who are making it for those who are spending it.
Rosen has, unsurprisingly, received criticism for his outspokenness. His head coach Jim Mora, who made $3.45 million last year, reportedly had a talk with his quarterback about the interview, and ESPN analyst David Pollack called Rosen’s comments “uneducated.”
“Remember how many people go to the NFL. It’s not like everybody who is going to play college football is cashing in that lottery ticket,” Pollack said. “Less than one percent of people actual make it. So you do need a backup plan and it’s not just about football.”
Of course, if Pollack had read Rosen’s full interview, he would have realized that they were on the same page about that part. Rosen is saying that because of the time that college football demands, and the scheduling constraints it puts on class registration and study time, it is virtually impossible for elite college football players to get the education they need to succeed in the next phase of their life.
What about those who don’t? What did they get for laying their body on the line play after play while universities make millions upon millions? People criticize when guys leave early for the NFL draft, and then rip them when some guys who leave early don’t get drafted. [They say,] “Why did you leave school if you weren’t going to get drafted?” I’ll tell you why: Because for a lot of guys, there is no other option. They were either leaving early (for the NFL) or flunking out. To me, that’s a problem within the system and the way we’re preparing student-athletes for the future away from football. Everyone has to be part of the process.
Rosen isn’t implying that he’s too lazy to study, nor is he saying, as Charles Barkley indicated, that the black men he plays with don’t need to get an education. He’s saying the system, as it is now, is only benefiting those who are raking in the cash. And he recognizes that he has the privilege and platform to address this, while most of the NCAA football players don’t.
It will be interesting to see how the conservative football machine, particularly the coaches and owners in the NFL, respond to Rosen’s perfectly reasonable yet somehow “radical” comments. He has a few things working in his favor—mainly his talent, position, and whiteness—but his remarks are bound to rattle the establishment and make people uncomfortable.
Thankfully, it doesn’t seem like Rosen is afraid of being a lightning rod.