Are today’s college student athletes suddenly “out of touch” as it applies to their new-found ability to earn money while playing college sports? Kirk Herbstreit recently suggested this sentiment, and he has his supporters that also feel college athletes have gone overboard with their demands now that they can be paid. Regardless of whether you agree with Herbstreit, the real question here centers around how student athletes should negotiate — should they passively take whatever colleges offer them, or should their approach mimic what professional athletes do, including leveraging their worth, and sitting out, if necessary? And if you are bothered by how some student athletes are negotiating today, did you have the same feelings about college coaches who routinely exaggerated their dedication to a school, only to leave the next day? With no authentic fiscal structure in place at the moment, college student athletes are left to their own when it comes to establishing their worth — should we appreciate their new challenges, or chastise them for simply trying to do what the rest of us do when it comes to salary negotiations?
College sports desperately need help
Until recently, college athletes were prohibited from earning money as student athletes, but NIL has changed the game. As increasingly more student athletes become instant millionaires, the rules and regulations around fiscal earnings has lagged behind terribly (to Herbstreit’s point). In fact, in this moment there appear to be literally no rules at all governing parameters for colleges or student athletes, allowing the free market to take over. No, college athletes are not “out of touch,” but their actions do highlight an incredible and immediate need for leadership, structure, rules, and regulations. To date, nobody is saying or doing much of anything, creating many new issues and problems that desperately need attention.
The problem with (again) placing blame at the feet of college athletes is that it makes student athletes seem greedy and out of touch, when really all they are doing in this moment is trying to earn what they can before most of their sports careers end. While I do not personally enjoy seeing student athletes jump from school to school so regularly today, I also think the ability to do this was long overdue. Student athletes are the product, yet they were the most restricted and least paid of everyone involved in college sports! While athletic directors, coaches (including assistant coaches!) all cashed in, and as state-of-the-art training facilities and stadiums popped up everywhere, student athletes received nothing. And now some want to criticize them for trying to get what they can — just like how everyone else has done the same??
There is no doubt the current system needs a lot of help, but to immediately look at student athletes as though they have caused this is a bit short-sighted. College football largely created the current situation, specifically when television dollars rolled in and everybody (but not student athletes) got paid. What we are witnessing now are the direct consequences of keeping the product as the last people to be paid, and what the correction looks like when problems have been ignored for too long.
Final thoughts
There’s a lot of finger pointing going on in college sports at the moment, and this is understandable as we see student athletes transferring schools daily. When student athletes transfer, it impacts the school fan base, ticket revenues, and even apparel sales. Transfers also impact the status of other athletes on the team, as well as the coach and his or her staff. While all of these concerns are legitimate and need immediate attention, it is also important to responsibly evaluate the actions of student athletes today, and if they are really abusing these new found privileges, or simply using their leverage just as anyone else would when looking for the best deal?
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