A New Era – Outdated Amateurism and the NCAA (Part 1)
This article by Joe Strong is the first part in a two part series.
UVA, after winning the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. Source: Streeter Lecka/Getty images
Amateurism has been synonymous with American Collegiate Athletics since its early 20th Century inception. Amateurism focuses on the idea that athletes receive no compensation for performance and compete purely for the love of sport. However, for many who have a professional career in their sights, the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) is seen as a rite of passage. With a new millennia and an increasingly globalised world, the commercial potential of collegiate sport has exponentially grown. Football players must be 3 years removed from high school to declare for the NFL draft, whereas the process takes 1 year for the NBA. Therefore, elite prospects such as Zion Williamson and Joe Burrow have been blocked from cashing in on this commercial potential in order to maintain their amateur status.
This business model is being increasingly attacked from both inside and outside of the collegiate system. The NBA has developed a ‘Professional Pathway Program’ to entice players into bypassing the NCAA. It brings into question the future of amateurism in collegiate athletics. As the number of elite NCAA prospects declines, the appeal of watching will also and therefore the financial sustainability of the NCAA is brought into disarray. In May, Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh spoke on the topic through an open letter, which called for widespread change in the collegiate system. The focus for current changes specifically surrounds Basketball and Football, the two largest and most profitable sports in the NCAA system. The scale they operate on creates more opportunity for specific athletes to commercialize. Whilst not legal, commercial opportunities for amateur athletes are still available in certain scenarios.
It is important to understand the current commercial status of the NCAA. Part of the amateur model for the NCAA states that athletes are unable to “advertise, recommend or promote directly the sale or use of a commercial product or service of any kind.” Therefore, any commercialization of NCAA sports has to be contracted directly through them. For example, the sixty five “Power 5 Schools” in college football collect $7.2Bn in rights fees from ESPN over the course of a 12-year contract. In addition, March Madness, the finale of the college basketball season, pulled in $993M in 2019. Rights fees are the main source of income for collegiate sports, but ticket sales, sponsorships and television ads also help support these events. While this money is divided amongst different schools and conferences, players receive zero compensation for their performances. That being said, many college sports programs show a financial deficit at the year’s end already. This makes the argument to directly pay NCAA players not only redundant, but also promotes an argument that supports NCAA players pursuing commercial avenues whilst playing college sports.
Reggie Bush, then-tailback for USC, holding the Heisman Trophy in 2005. Source: Michael Cohen/WireImage
There is a perception that the NCAA system inhibits athletes from supporting their families. Many collegiate athletes come from disadvantaged backgrounds and want to give back as soon as possible. The inability for collegiate athletes to commercially cash-in leads to their use of illegal backchannels in both college recruiting and their collegiate careers. Reggie Bush is the poster-child of this scenario, as throughout his career with the University of Southern California (USC), his family received gifts from agents, which resulted in sanctions against the University. Among those was a 10-year dissociation between Bush and USC. On its lifting earlier this year, USC issued a statement to re-associate themselves with Bush within 24-hours. This highlights growing acceptance of these backchannels, as while there was an official punishment, the public response was more understanding.
Although the Bush incident was almost 2 decades ago, the scale of similar dealings have since grown, as highlighted by the 2017-18 College Basketball Corruption Scandal. ASM Sports is an agency found to have paid up to 6-figures to players and their families, whilst they were still in high school or college. They often colluded with college assistants or coaches in a mutually beneficial scheme: while the college had a secured commitment from the player, the agency would sign them officially when they turned professional. For example, Dennis Smith Jr, current New York Knicks point guard, received $40,000 for committing to North Carolina State University. For agencies and colleges, signing on another player is an investment; for athletes, it is a chance to support their families at an earlier opportunity.
As these investments are becoming more widespread, there is a realisation that if other commercially viable avenues open up, athletes will take them, instead of going through the NCAA system. This is specifically problematic in Basketball, as players only need to be one-year removed from high school to play in the NBA, unlike three years for football. Therefore, a shorter time-frame correlates with lower risk for players, and multiple pathways that allow players to bypass the NCAA are currently emerging. The most official of these is the NBA G-League’s ‘Professional Player Pathway,’ which provides a $500k year-long contract to play in the official development league of the NBA. Furthermore, anyone who takes this pathway receives a full scholarship to Arizona State University, allowing players to pursue any educational aspirations alongside commercial ones. This initiative only began in 2018, and during the 2020 college recruitment cycle, it took its first two big names: Jalen Green and Isaiah Todd. Both 5 Star prospects within the top-20 players nationwide, Green and Todd could set a new norm if they go on to see success through this pathway.
LaMelo Ball of the Illawarra Hawks (left) and RJ Hampton of the New Zealand Breakers (right) during the round 9 NBL match between the Breakers and Hawks on Nov 30, 2019. Source: Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images
Alongside this, there is also increasing popularity to play abroad between high school and the NBA, a route which also allows players to get paid. For instance, Brandon Jennings first took this route, playing for Lottomatica Roma in 2008-09. Since then, Emmanuel Mudiay has played in China (2014-15), and this past year, both LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton have played in Australia’s NBL. As playing overseas fulfilled Mudiay's desire to support his family, he reneged from his decision to play for Southern Methodist University in the NCAA. Regarding LaMelo Ball, he was already ineligible under NCAA rules, as the Ball family name had been commercialised through the Big Baller Brand while he was in high school. Other approaches that aspiring NBA players are taking include doing a post-graduate year of high school or solely training throughout the season to prepare for the NBA Draft. Darius Bazley, current Oklahoma City Thunder player, did the latter with some support. Signing with Rich Paul, Lebron James’ agent, after high school gave Bazley the connections to complete a 3 Month, $1M internship with New Balance. This internship allowed him to train while still being financially supported.
The plethora of alternate pathways available to basketball players is only the tip of the iceberg. The more that basketball players choose to forego the NCAA, this will lower the quality of NCAA talent and therefore, its appeal to fans. It also will decrease commercial opportunities for the NCAA itself, which would be detrimental to their scale of operation. However, attacks from outside the NCAA are also being replicated from the inside, with calls for there to be larger scale changes within the NCAA’s amateurism business model.