According to ESPN, "If (Ohr's) decision is upheld, it will give players at private universities a voice in the management of their lives as athletes and students. It will qualify players for workers' compensation benefits for injuries that occur during their playing careers, benefits that will cover them well into their futures. Instead of coaches issuing schedules and setting rules for their private lives, the players and their union will bargain for their working conditions in the same way NFL and MLB players bargain for benefits. And, although the Northwestern players say they are not interested in payments for their efforts, the formation of a players' union will open the way to salaries for athletes in football and men's basketball."
Mr. Ohr's opinion focused on the number of hours Northwestern players allegedly devoted to football and to the control coaches have over their lives. But while Northwestern players play football, they also graduate.
At the Division I level, the football Graduation Success Rate, admittedly, varies from university to university. But it simply is untrue to say -- at least for universities like Northwestern, Notre Dame and Stanford -- that "the student-athlete is a cherished, long standing American myth, which retains a modicum of validity only at non-scholarship colleges." It is also a canard to make a blanket statement that at the Division 1 level, athletes are treated like chopped-meat.
Northwestern's NCAA Football Student Graduation Rate was a best in the nation 97 percent. It was followed by Rice at 95 percent, Notre Dame and Boston College at 94 percent, Air Force and Stanford at 93 percent, Duke at 92 percent and Boise State at 91 percent. And at Northwestern, Notre Dame and Stanford, the football players take the same classes as the rest of the student body. There are no "special" courses for "jocks." To minimize their student-status is to falsely denigrate their success.
But scholarship football players are only a part of the story. Notre Dame, for example, has 22 men's and women's sports that show up in the NCAA's Student-Athlete Graduation Rate Survey. In 20 of its 22 programs, Notre Dame graduated 100 percent of its student-athletes. Indeed, the NCAA's figures released on Oct. 24, 2013, show that all 11 Irish women's programs posted a GSR of 100 percent -- basketball, cross country/track, fencing, golf, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, softball, swimming/diving, tennis and volleyball.
Among Notre Dame's men's sports, baseball, basketball, cross country/track, fencing, golf, hockey, soccer, swimming/diving and tennis achieved 100 percent GSR scores. Men's lacrosse scored 96 percent and football 94 percent.
The cost of going to the colleges listed here isn't cheap. Northwestern's 2013-14 tuition, fees, room and board were $57,108. Notre Dame's were $57,117; a full, one-year athletic scholarship to either institution is worth just under $60,000. Moreover, the football players and other scholarship athletes get first-rate educations. And when a player gets hurt at Northwestern or Notre Dame, they don't lose their scholarship; moreover, they get the best medical care available. And of course, they are coached-up to play at the highest level, which for at least a few leads to a lucrative pro career.
So, would your son do better if instead of taking an athletic-scholarship to play football at Northwestern, he opted to play minor league baseball? Hardly. A first-year player in the Rookie League earns $1,150 per month; $1,300 at Low A; $1,500 at high A. Additionally, they get a $20 per day meal allowance during the season while on the road. Therefore, a rookie-level minor leaguer earns about $10,500 per year.
A full-time minimum wage worker earns about $20,000 per year and pays taxes. A football player at Northwestern earns $60,000 per year, plays and gets coached-up in the game he loves, and gets the best education in the world while his tuition and books are tax-free income.
For the Reporting Year Sept. 1, 2012-Aug. 31, 2013, Northwestern's Total Football Revenues were $30,143,982; expenses were $21,722,796. On its face, Northwestern appears to have made big profit of $8,421,186 from its football program. Its men's basketball team also generated a profit of $6,667,910. But those were the only profitable sports programs.
Women's basketball, fencing and field hockey, lacrosse, softball, track-field-cross-country and volleyball, as well as men's baseball and wrestling, and men's and women's golf, soccer, swimming and diving and tennis were big losers. The combined net loss for those sports was (revenues of $1,972,700 less expenses of $16,275,194) was $14,302,494.
The bottom line is that Northwestern's profits from football and men's basketball finance the other male and all women's sports.
Mr. Ohr looks at the more than $8.4 million generated by the football program and sees money that could be used to pay the football players and afford them other benefits. His ruling, however, ignores the fact that the university's football (and men's basketball) earnings fund the whole Northwestern sports program. Without football and men's basketball revenues, women's sports and other men's sports cease to exist, unless the university chooses to fund them with tuition or other resources
ESPN notes, "The decision in the Northwestern case affects only private universities. Any attempt by players to form a union at ... Ohio State, or Nebraska, would be governed by the specific state's laws on unions of public employees (teachers, firefighters, police)."
Can the NCAA live with a scheme where private universities can award incoming football player a $60,000 scholarship plus a $250,000 signing bonus and a salary, while state universities are limited to giving only a scholarship worth about $60K? Will private universities find themselves expelled from the NCAA if they do?
Once players unionize and bargain for "compensation," won't that compensation become taxable just like other "bargained-for income?" What about union dues?
The issues I raise are only the first of the unintended consequences -- one of which might well be a strike in lieu of the football season or the national championship game.
Posted Online: April 5, 2014, 11:00 pm - Quad-Cities Online
by John Donald O'Shea
Copyright 2014
John Donald O'Shea
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