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President Barack Obama is correct about Problems with the NCAA

By Caleb Calhoun

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President Barack Obama recently raised four issues with the NCAA that need to be discussed. His major point that NCAA athletes are robbed is correct.

In a Huffington Post Interview that was put up on SB Nation, President Barack Obama addressed four major concerns with the NCAA, with the overlying message being that athletes, particularly in college football and college basketball, get the short end of the stick.

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And he was right on the money. I want to stand up and applaud him strictly for taking these stances. You may disagree with the president on many counts, but this is not the time to bring that up.

What we need to address are the four points Obama brought up: athletes get screwed when it comes to scholarships, they are not covered health-wise the way they should be, the eligibility rules are ridiculous, and the idea of paying players needs to be discussed in a fair way.

Let’s call it what it is, these athletes are exploited. They generate millions of dollars in revenue for the NCAA and draw more national attention to the schools, particularly in college football and college basketball. But in return for generating that revenue, they do not get to benefit financially or in any other way, leaving all the profits for the NCAA, under the logical fallacy that a full scholarship to college should be enough.

Yeah, because the business major who is making an A- in STAT is generating the same revenue as the Heisman-winning quarterback. This student-athlete notion is laughable in itself, but what is more laughable is when players who generate revenue and go to school for a specific sport are compared to average, everyday students at that college as if they are making the same contribution.

This takes us to the president’s overall point, which we want to break down piece by piece.

The best point he made was about eligibility. Here is the exact quote:

"“What does frustrate me is where I see coaches getting paid millions of dollars, athletic directors getting paid millions of dollars, the NCAA making huge amounts of money, and then some kid gets a tattoo or gets a free use of a car and suddenly they’re banished. That’s not fair.”"

BOOM!

Obama nailed it. If you don’t want athletes to get a stipend, and if you don’t want a bidding war for them in recruiting, fine. But once they are on campus, why is it such a travesty for players to be able to profit off of their own brand?

Johnny Manziel should be able to sign autographs and sell them. The same holds true for Todd Gurley. Ohio State players should be able to get free tattoos all they want once they are on campus. As long as the college or a booster affiliated with the college is not giving them the extra money, who cares what they do?

It’s nothing but a greedy way for the NCAA to make sure that it keeps all the profits from jersey sales and marketing off a player’s name. And it’s disgusting.

The issue of scholarships was another great point by Obama. His exact phrase was that they should stick. Right now, players can’t transfer without some sort of loophole, which is fair, but then coaches like Nick Saban get to over-sign and force some kids who commit to go to Prep School for a year. This is a hypocritical two-way street and embarrassing for the NCAA. Players have to honor every commitment, coaches and the schools that profit off them don’t have to honor any commitment.

The next issue is health care. Part of the problem for athletes who debate leaving early or staying is that they do not always have coverage when they get hurt. If you get hurt working for your company, that company usually compensates you. But if a player gets hurt and ruins his career playing for his college, they could be left with nothing. Obama is right in saying they should be guaranteed some form of health coverage. It might even make the decision to stay in college another year easier.

Finally, President Obama raised a fair issue about a bidding war for players when it comes to paying them in general. However, that is solvable. Let the players profit off of their brand, and then have every player paid a flat rate. There may be some complications to work out with Title IX, but as Steve Spurrier so brilliantly pointed out last year, football coaches already are getting paid more than softball coaches.

Could that be a violation of Title IX? Possibly.

Heck, there is already a bidding war for coaches.

Simply put, you can work that out. All in all, athletes in sports that generate revenue for the university have been robbed by the NCAA. It’s time to fix the issue.

And kudos to President Barack Obama for bringing it up.

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