The University’s code of ethics requires University leadership to treat all students equally. The code says the University is committed to “guaranteeing equal opportunity and nondiscrimination with respect to University services, programs, activities and employment.”
However, the University continuously restricts the rights of one group of students: students who play National Collegiate Athletic Association sports. The University’s membership in the NCAA means the University is complicit in keeping alive one of the greatest surviving instances of institutionalized discrimination in America.
University athletes are prohibited by NCAA rules from profiting from their own skills, name and likeness. Every other University student, even those on full scholarship, is afforded that fundamental civil right. So long as you have not been named a “student-athlete,” you can get paid by the University and enjoy a free meal without a guilty conscience. You could even sell your autograph or start a crowdfunding page for your personal ambitions. The University may even applaud and commend your initiative if you did so.
But if you happen to wear the Cavaliers jersey on game days, not only may you not promote yourself for personal gain, but you will be shamed and shunned by the University for even daring to do so.
Take, for example, the case of a crowdfunding website I helped build: FanPay.org. Our website crowdfunds graduation incentives for college students and college athletes. Students must graduate to access the funds, thereby motivating them to finish their degree. The goals of our website are not complicated: to help college athletes get an education and get a down payment on their lives after college sports.
However, in November of last year, the University’s athletic department sent us a cease and desist letter. The letter noted that our graduation incentives may be in violation of NCAA Bylaw 12.5.2.2, which prohibits athletes from profiting from their personal brand. Ironically, another arcane NCAA bylaw, 12.1.2.1.4.3.3, specifically allows for financial incentives for college athletes who earn Olympic medals. Do NCAA members care more about the education of its athletes or athletic glory?
We at FanPay question why U.Va. is so opposed to crowdfunded graduation incentives, as U.Va. is not immune to the huge social and economic ills found in college sports today.
For example, U.Va. boasts a stellar 93 percent federal graduation rate. By comparison, the five-year average graduation rate of the main revenue-generating sports at U.Va., men’s basketball and football, on average stand at roughly just 44 percent and 66 percent, respectively. Statistics like these, which show that every incoming mens basketball player is just half as likely to graduate from U.Va. than their non-athlete peers, seriously undermine the University’s insistence that it takes the education and well-being of its athletes seriously.
Sky-high salaries for U.Va.’s coaches make the situation look even more exploitative. Virginia’s basketball coach rakes in nearly $2.2 million per year, and the football coach makes $3.2 million. The NCAA limits the number of players who can receive scholarships at 13 for mens basketball and 85 for football. If these salaries were halved and split with the athletes, each of the 13 mens scholarship basketball players would earn over $84,000 per year and each of the 85 scholarship football players would earn almost $19,000 per year.
Race is deeply embedded in these issues. While NCAA policies are equally discriminatory against all races, they disproportionately harm young black men. Only 6-10 percent of U.Va. students are African-American or multiracial, but the racial compositions of the two revenue-generating sports teams are both well over 50 percent African-American.
The tentacles of the NCAA monopoly stretch far and wide across its almost 1,300 member colleges and universities and across all of their corporate, government, and non-profit partners. Not only do these counterproductive rules harm students personally and financially, but their Byzantine rigidity also serves to stifle innovative and proactive improvements like FanPay. Rather than adopting a progressive and forward-thinking approach to reforming college sports, leading institutions like U.Va. have found it convenient to hide behind the scapegoat of NCAA rules in order to avoid tough questions about the ongoing abuse of the civil rights of college athletes on their campuses.
U.Va.’s code of ethics also states that “Complaints of discrimination, harassment and retaliation are investigated and when warranted appropriate corrective action is taken.” President Sullivan, I urge you to investigate this complaint and be brave in taking corrective action.
Tony Klausing is the co-founder of FanPay.org.
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