The Challenges of College Sports: Academics, Athletics and Money

Video forward by Kevin Blackistone.



The colloquium was titled "Intercollegiate Athletics: Pro/Con: the Joys and Challenges of College Sports." The subject, as stated by moderator Maury Povich, was academics, athletics, and money.

Povich directed his first question at Redskins offensive tackle Stephon Heyer. While at Maryland, did Heyer consider himself more student or athlete.

The Redskins offensive lineman chuckled.

His response was even more telling, and set the tone for an evening of joyous and challenging debate. "As an athlete, -- student-athlete," he corrected, "you look at yourself as an athlete more than a student." Maryland Athletic Director Debbie Yow looked thrilled.

On Wednesday Nov. 11, the University of Maryland hosted the fourth annual Shirley Povich Symposium. Heyer and Yow were joined on the panel by ESPN personalities Scott Van Pelt and Michael Wilbon, Terrapin men's basketball coach Gary Williams and William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland. In the movie business, that's called a star-studded cast.

The group discourse became reconciling the idea of the student-athlete. Are our expectations of college athletes realistic? Does the term student-athlete simply serve to preserve the flow of money afforded to the universities by the athletes? Is the NCAA a sham? Should players be paid? All questions were on the table.
"Hell, when I played intramural sports I was too tired to study."
-- Michael Wilbon
Co-moderator Connie Chung introduced a USA Today study, in which Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) football players said they spent on average 44.8 hours on athletic activities, compared to less than 40 on academics. As Wilbon pointed out, that's more than a full-time job.

"Hell, when I played intramural sports I was too tired to study," Wilbon said.

So given the amount of time and exertion, do athletes deserve a wage? Heyer thought so. He explained that in college he wasn't looking for jewelery or a flashy car, he was looking for some pocket change to catch a movie.

Yow countered with the measures that are in place now, including the Student Athlete Opportunity Fund. "They might not be paid enough, but they are paid the amount of the scholarship," Yow noted, adding that the university would not have sufficient funds to put spending money in the pockets of all its student-athletes.

Van Pelt didn't buy it. He said students should be getting a cut of the money they print directly for the universities. "Let's call it what it is," Van Pelt said. "It's a business."

A business that is unlikely to change any time soon. As Wilbon pointed out, fans care about the games, and people are willing to ignore the imperfections of the system when it's time for kickoff.

It's about inertia. The universities and the NCAA have little incentive to change. With the money on the table, who can blame them.

In the end, it was a fruitful discourse amongst a unique panel. But what was enlightening in theory, may never lead to change in practice.

"What bothers me is that what we talk about, it's just talk. That's all this is," Van Pelt said. "It's not substantive in terms of bring about change because the truth of what we discussed tonight is very complicated and there are no easy answers."