With less than 30 percent of the UA basketball team graduating and the highest number of underclassmen in the National Basketball Association draft this year, it's time for the NCAA to look at ways to keep student athletes in school and out of the draft. One of the possible solutions is to share the wealth. Yes, it's time for colleges to pay their athletes.
However, there seems to be an intrinsic problem with paying student athletes. Because, in the true sense of the word, they are still students. Yes, they are actually at college to learn and study, just like the rest of us peons.
The problem of student athletes jumping from colleges to make the big money still exists because the scholarship money is a pittance to live on. For the 1996-1997 academic year, full scholarship athletes at the UA receive only $6,649, excluding tuition an d fees. Compared to the average student loan, that is about $4,000 less. Granted that student athletes do not have to repay their scholarships, but with only $2,497 for rent and $3,752 for food, the differences are astronomical. Consider this € the averag e rent around the university is $300 per person. For a full year, that would equal $3,600, with the student athlete coming up short - for three months. Now, I'm a small person who doesn't eat much. Yet, it still costs me about $15 a day for food. And cons idering that money for food is sometimes put onto the Student Union's All-Aboard system, where meals can cost $5, the amount of money allotted for food would hardly cover the year. Figure it out - $15 a day for 365 days a year. That equals $5,475, a diff erence of $1,723. Seeing how large and athletic the student athletes are, I figure that they eat twice as much as I do; that would mean the difference between what food costs are and what student athletes receive is almost $3,500.
Clearly, this is not enough for student athletes to survive. If they were regular students, they would able to supplement their scholarship money by working during the school year. Alas, that is against NCAA sanctions and would get the student and the uni versity in trouble. The student athletes are allowed to get money from their immediate family, but that is assuming their parents are able to help out their children. That is not always the case.
Finally, though, the NCAA is going to take a look at student athlete retention and possible solutions at their conference in January 1997. University of Arizona Athletic Director Jim Livengood does not think that anyone at the conference will support payi ng student athletes outright. When paying student athletes, the colleges would have to consider workperson compensation and contracts. In that scenario, the schools would become more of a farm system for the NFL and the NBA. Also, schools would have to ta ke on the financial burden of paying all student athletes, not just the athletes with money-making programs (such as basketball and football). That is impossible and improbable. According to Mr. Livengood, the probable solution will be need-based scholars hips, where the student athletes who need the money will receive more aid. In this scenario, not all athletes would receive scholarships. At the University of Arizona 65 to 75 percent of the athletes receive some form of aid, whether it be a full or parti al scholarship. With the need-based scholarship, the student athletes who needed more money would receive more money, while students who do not need as much aid would not receive as much.
Hopefully, this scenario will be carefully looked at by the NCAA. There is a definite need to increase the amount of money that student athletes receive. Whether it be through need-based scholarships or by some other way, the student athlete needs to be c ompensated in some way and deserves more than the $6,649 they are receiving. If there is more of an incentive to finish their education at the university and not jump into the big money, then there is the possibility that the student athletes who do not m ake it in the 'big leagues' will have something to fall back on. And that is exactly what the university and student athletes should be concerned about - education.
Jeremy Pepper