College Athletes are Modern Day Slaves? I Think Not.

With the departure of Isaiah Thomas to the NBA there has been a lot of talk on both sides of the ball. Is it good that he leaves? Bad? Does he owe the fans something? The University? It goes on and on. In my mind, that is all debatable, but to hear people refer to NCAA athletes as "modern day slaves" (Quoted from Bobby Jones, a former UW basketball player) is beyond absurd and I'll tell you why.

To attend the University of Washington for one year costs quite a chunk of change, more so if you are not a resident of the state of Washington.

Here are the numbers straight from the UW financial website as of today. April 1st, 2011.

In State Resident Costs for One Year (Books, Room/Board, Tuition, Personal, Transportation): $22,042

At 40 hours per week over 52 week, that comes to $10.59 per hour.

Out of State Resident Costs for One Year (Books, Room/Board, Tuition, Personal, Transportation): $43,731

At 40 hours per week over 52 week, that comes to $21.02 per hour.

Washington (the state, not school) has the HIGHEST minimum wage in the country at $8.67 per hour. At 40 hours a week over 52 weeks, that comes to $18,033.60. As you can quickly, and easily see, the cost to attend UW, which scholarship athletes get to attend for free, is higher by several thousand dollars. Ten's of thousands for out of state students. This means the athletes are being "paid" more than minimum wage for their services to the school.

The Federal minimum wage as dictated by the government is $7.25. At 40 hours over 52 weeks, that comes to $15,080. So these "slaves" are making anywhere from $3.29 to $13.77 MORE per hour than minimum wage. Throw in travel costs, hotels, etc. and the cost to pay for these students education goes up even higher and their "pay" also increases significantly. The team generally departs on a Wednesday and returns on the following Saturday or Sunday. Right now, a flight to Los Angeles costs $416, round trip. Again, we look at the cost per hour and find that this single flight amounts to an additional 20 CENTS an hour. That's a good pay raise at your average fast food establishment. What's crazy, is that our team flies to almost every away game. If you assume we travel to both the LA schools, Bay Area schools, and Arizona schools by plane we add $.20, $.27, and $.26 per hour each for a total of $.73. We are being nice and assuming we bus to the Oregon schools and WSU. Now our student athletes are making between $4.02 and $14.50 MORE per hour than minimum wage. We are not including things like the Maui Invitational this year or a flight to Texas to play Texas A&M. Nor have we included hotel costs or food costs while on the road. We have not included the Pac-10 Tournament or the NCAA tournament. Simply 3 road trips our basketball athletes make every year. Adding in those costs would raise the pay grade even higher. Maui adds 38 cents, Texas adds 35 cents, the Pac-10 Tournament adds 20 cents, and Charlotte adds 30 cents. That right there is another $1.23 PER HOUR the athletes are making and we STILL haven't included food and hotels while traveling abroad. Nor have we even talked about Bus costs to get to and from both airports. As you can see, this is quickly adding up to be a high "paying" job.

People then want to argue that the schools are making tons of money off of the athletes and since the athletes aren't receiving cold hard cash, the athletes are essentially "slaves." To that I raise this point. I worked at Subway throughout HS school, starting my junior year. I have continued to work there over break and in the summer time between college quarters. They pay me a little over minimum wage for my services. In turn, their corporation pulls in over $10,000 per week, per store. The particular set of owners I work for currently operate around 10 shops meaning they make several million dollars per year. Because their income is so much significantly higher than mine, do I get to call them a "slave corporation?" No. Their income goes towards paying my salary, the food costs, and finally they get what is left to improve the shops, customer and worker experience, and try to pocket whatever remains.

The NCAA is the same way, except most schools do NOT make money from their sports. Only 14 schools, out of 120 FBS schools, made money this year from their athletic departments. All the money these athletes bring in for their schools goes to pay THEIR tuition, THEIR room and board, THEIR food, THEIR clothes, THEIR travel, etc., etc. These athletes are not slaves. They made a choice to play collegiate sports just like I did to work at Subway. Their pay is not cash or a check, it is an education, it is travel, it is food, housing, books, and clothes. It is an opportunity to expose yourself to the world, to make contacts, to get "promoted" to the next level. Guys like Brendan Sherrer and Antoine Hosley, the walk on athletes of the NCAA, have the biggest opportunity to claim "slavery," yet they are the most grateful for their opportunities. They aren't on scholarship. They have to pay that $22,000 or $43,000. The only "pay" they get are their travel, hotel, and food costs when abroad. So these guys only "make" $1.96 per hour for their services (not taking into account hotels, busing, food cost on the road, etc.). If anyone can make a case for "modern day slavery" it is the walk ons of the nation, yet you never hear of a walk on complaining about being "slaves."

What gets me even more riled up is when multimillion dollar athletes in the NFL complain about being "slaves" to the team owners. You make millions of dollar and live a life of luxury. Come join the real world and try to survive in this economy. Better yet, go back in time and talk to REAL slaves and find out how shitty their lives are and were. Go see how not slaves college and professional athletes are.

So to those who claim the NCAA is turning athletes into slaves. EAT MY SHORTS! I don't know a single person who would not trade lives with a scholarship collegiate athlete. Not a single one. I'm not proclaiming to know everyone, but I feel fairly confident in saying most people would love to live the life of a college basketball or football player. What is better than doing what you love and getting "paid" for it? Nothing. That is the American dream, to be paid for your passions. Whether that payment comes in money or equivalent cost goods and other services it does not matter.

College athletes are not "modern day slaves" and as long as they continue to give scholarships to student-athletes they never will be. If you want to pay college athletes in cash, go right on ahead, but make sure they no longer are given a scholarship for their services. If you want to treat sports like a job at the college level then go right on ahead, it just means these athletes will have to pay for their education like the rest of the general student populace. As long as the pay is comparable to what they currently receive through their scholarship and travel costs and they lose their scholarship I won't complain. Fair is fair. They provide a quality service to the school and they are being generously rewarded for it.