The financial impact of a college football playoff is
estimated to be worth from $5-$6 billion. This estimate is predicted based on a
multi-year media agreement. It does not
include the sell of tickets or the economic impact to the hosting cities. Yes,
the “former” BCS system had it flaws of not accurately producing a national
champion and the bowls were losing popularity, but are these the motivating
factors? I doubt if there would be many disagreements to the conclusion that
the move to a playoff system is driven purely by economic motives. The urgency
to generate more revenue, build bigger facilities, and to host bigger
collegiate sport spectacles is like a runaway train speeding unmanned,
uncontrollable, and without the aid of Denzel Washington and Chris Pine to
bring it under control; it’s unstoppable.
The issue that is often lost in the discussion regarding
revenue generation and expenditure is the athletic labor force – the athlete.
Therefore as the revenue increases so do the athletic demands that are placed
on this athletic labor force. There is no way to expect greater returns without
the expectation of greater athletic output, which ultimately require athletes
to make sacrifices to their lives as “students”.
The final issue of concern is the racial dynamics of this
athletic labor force. For racial
demographics of the 2011 and 2012 BCS National Championship games, Blacks
athletes made of 61% of the teams competing in the games. In last year’s
championship game alone, Black athletes made up 71% of the teams. My main point
here is that Black males are economic imperatives; i.e., their athletic talent
is essential to the economic viability and expansion of this college football
industry. Similar to the key position Black male basketball players occupy in
generating 90% of the NCAA’s revenue, Black male football players are critical
to the college football enterprise.
Since we have evolved to a playoff system, is the
possibility for compensating athletes beyond the bare minimum of an athletic scholarship
becoming more of a reality? Is fair compensation inevitable; especially as
athletic demands increased placing greater pressure on athletes? Or, will we
continue to allow this unstoppable system continue out of control on the backs
of young men?
Money seems to be the key ingredient here. Colleges make so much revenue from college football games yet the players bringing in the tremendous amount of revnue don't see much of it. Even though many football athletes gets full ride scholarships and some partial it still can be a struggle to give a 100 percent effort to their school work because so much time is being dedicated to the football program. College athletes also struggle finacially with living expenses even though their tuition is paid for. I feel that college athletes should get paid and should recieve some of that revenue the school wouldnt recieve if it weren't for those athletes. I'm not saying they should get paid the same percentage that professionals make but a minimum per student. It should be treated like a work study position. So much time is being dedicated to football and zero time for an actuall job why not considered this their part time job to support them through school.
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