Is a Scholarship Enough?: Boyce Watkins on NCAA Reform

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor of Finance at Syracuse University. He frequently appears on CNN, ESPN, and other news networks to discuss his innovative ideas for reforming college athletics. Bleacher Report was thrilled to have an opportunity to interview Dr. Watkins about his belief that college athletes should get paid.

1) People often say that the opportunity to receive a free education
is enough compensation for college athletes. What's wrong with that argument?

A free education is valuable, no one knows that better than a college professor.  The problem is that we can’t assume that $30,000 per year is fair compensation for any job.  If Tom Cruise stars in a blockbuster film, he is going to kick your butt if you try to pay him $30,000, even if you throw room and board in with it.  In America, you get paid what you’re worth.

I see many athletes who are literally responsible for bringing $20M per year into their campuses, yet their mothers are starving to death or homeless.  This should be a shame for us all, since I’ve never seen a D-I college coach’s mother go hungry.

2) If colleges could pay athletes, the wealthier schools would appear to have an advantage. Do you think there would need to be a salary cap or other measures put in place to ensure some parity in college sports?

I am not opposed to the idea of a salary cap, although I haven’t seen a salary cap for coaches.  My goal is not to support preferential treatment for athletes, I only endorse fairness.  I don’t see why coaches and athletes can’t have the same rules.  They are all under the same pressure to win, they are both treated as professionals and expected to produce as professionals.  This pressure doesn’t come from the fact that their campuses love sports so much, it’s because CAMPUSES WANT THE MONEY.   They are pushing these guys much harder on the court and the field than they do in the classroom, because good grades don’t pay university bills; only big wins bring in big paychecks.

But in terms of a salary cap, I would not be opposed to that.  The NCAA is lucky, since they are the only multi-billion sports league that can get away with paying their players 1/100 of what they are worth.  Players would be ecstatic to play for $150,000 per year, which is far less than the millions many of them would earn in a fair market system.  The money wouldn’t have to come from university budgets, they could start by sharing the money coaches get from shoe deals.  After all, the players are the ones we pay to see and they are the ones wearing the shoes.  But as a general rule, the Finance and free market capitalist in me doesn’t like the idea of any kind of government regulation restricting wages.  I am sure coaches wouldn’t like a cap on their wages either.

3) Do you think that recruits should be offered contracts by schools
based on the performance they showed in high school? How would one individual's contract differ from another?

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